Arun Jaitley to contest for Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, currently a Rajya Sabha member of parliament (MP) from Gujarat, will be contesting from Uttar Pradesh, according to Bhartiya Janta Party's list of eight candidates announced ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections to be held in six different states.

Other than Arun Jaitley, Human Resources and Development Minister Prakash Javadekar was shifted to his home state Maharashtra. He was elected from Madhya Pradesh in 2014.

The announcement was made on Wednesday by BJP's central election committee.

Five other union ministers and one general secretary were also announced who will be contesting from the same states they have been elected from earlier.

According to the statement, Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot will contest from Madhya Pradesh, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Bihar and J P Nadda from Himachal Pradesh.

Parshottam Rupala and Manusukh Mandaviya will contest from Gujarat. Bhupender Yadav, the party's general secretary, will again contest from Rajasthan.

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has also been shifted to Madhya Pradesh from Bihar.

(With inputs from PTI)