External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has been declared the BJP candidate from the Rajya Sabha of Gujarat. On Tuesday, he is going to fill the nomination for the Gujarat Rajya Sabha. Earlier, he met state Chief Minister Vijay Rupani at his residence in Gandhinagar.
According to the reports after the selection of BJP President Amit Shah and Lok Sabha member of Smriti Irani, there will be polls in two Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat. The party has nominated External Affairs Minister Jaishankar from one seat, while the second seat has declared Jugalji Mathurji Thakor as the candidate.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on June 24. Jayashankar joined the BJP in the presence of Executive President JP Nadda.
Significantly, the 1977-batch Foreign Service officer, Jayashankar has been an ambassador to various important countries, such as America and China. He was Foreign Secretary from January 2015 to January 2018. During this time, he played an important role in shaping the foreign policy of the first government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Jaishankar planned to visit Prime Minister Modi's first America in September 2014 and successfully executed it. In the meantime, the PM addressed Indian expatriates from Madison Square in New York.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will file his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday from Gujarat. Jaishankar reached Ahmedabad last evening, hours after he officially joined the BJP in the presence of BJP's working president JP Nadda in Delhi.
As of now, Jaishankar is not a member of either House of Parliament. As per the rules, a minister who is not a member of Parliament must be elected as its member within six months of his swearing in. The 1977-batch officer had also served as Indian envoy in countries like the US and China at crucial times.
