BJP picks ex-NCW head as RS candidate from Hry

Chandigarh: BJP on Monday picked named former National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma as its nominee for the election to the single seat of Rajya Sabha from Haryana scheduled for Dec 20.
Sharma — poised to be elected to the upper house as BJP enjoys a majority with 48 MLAs and has support of three independent MLAs in the 90-member assembly, will file her nomination papers on Tuesday.
The election was necessitated following the resignation of Krishan Lal Panwar. He had won from Israna assembly constituency in the Haryana elections and is now a minister in the Nayab Singh Saini’s cabinet.
Congress is unlikely to field any candidate.
The tenure of Sharma, if elected, would be for around four years.
A resident of Panchkula, Sharma entered politics in 1991-92 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in-charge of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Since her early days in politics, she has been associated with Modi. In the first term of the Modi-led NDA govt, Sharma was appointed as a member of NCW. Later, she was elevated to chairperson on Aug 7, 2018, and continued to hold the post till Aug this year.
During the Haryana assembly elections, Sharma was a member of Haryana BJP’s election management committee and in-charge of the intellectual cell to coordinate with high dignitaries and intellectuals settled in the state.
Soon after the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP govt formed in the state, speculation was rife about the party’s pick for the Rajya Sabha seat. Besides former MPs Kuldeep Bishnoi and Sanjay Bhatia, names of Haryana BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli and former minister Om Parkash Dhankar were also doing the rounds.
Earlier, Saini called all party MLAs to Chandigarh on Monday evening.