BJP announces candidates for 4 of 7 Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra; Ramdas Athawale, Vinod Tawde on list

The announcement comes ahead of the biennial elections to seven Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra, which are scheduled to fall vacant this year.

The BJP calculation is also that bringing in rival parties' workers would dent their opponents’ morale and create a perception among voters that the party is set to return to power.The BJP has announced four candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra: Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, Vinod Tawde, Maya Chintaman Inwate, and Ramrao Wadkute.(File Photo)
1 min readMar 4, 2026 12:12 PM IST First published on: Mar 4, 2026 at 12:02 PM IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday announced the names of four candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha biennial elections from Maharashtra.

According to a party press release issued by the BJP’s central office in New Delhi, the party’s Central Election Committee has approved the candidature of Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde, Maya Chintaman Inwate, and Ramrao Wadkute for the Upper House polls from the state.

Advertisement

The announcement comes ahead of the biennial elections to seven Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra, which are scheduled to fall vacant this year.

Athawale, the leader of the Republican Party of India (Athawale) and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, is a long-time NDA ally and currently serves as a Rajya Sabha MP. Tawde, a former Maharashtra minister and BJP national general secretary, has also been named among the nominees.