Hardeep Puri's Rajya Sabha Bid From MP Triggers Political Row

Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, will file his nomination for the Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha by-election on Saturday. The filing will take place in Bhopal at the state Vidhan Sabha, where he is expected to arrive with a group of senior party leaders.

Sources in the Madhya Pradesh BJP's media department said Puri will leave the state party headquarters at 11 am for the Vidhan Sabha. Earlier, at 10:30 am, he will be accompanied by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to pay tributes at the portraits of senior party figures at the headquarters.

The party has stated that the nomination will be filed in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, state BJP president Hemant Khandelwal, who is also an MLA, state organisation general secretary Chandrashekhar, and other senior leaders.

The BJP named Puri as its candidate on October 28. The by-election is scheduled for November 12 and was necessitated by the vacancy created when Union Minister L. Murugan resigned. That seat's term was set to run until April 2030.

Puri is presently a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh, with his term ending on November 25.

The nomination has already become a point of contention. The Congress has criticised the BJP for picking an outsider rather than a local leader. The opposition party has further questioned Puri's past meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, the American sex offender, and has asked both him and the BJP to clarify the matter.

Still, the BJP's strength in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, where it holds 164 seats against the Congress's 65, means the party is widely expected to retain the seat.