The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday decided to field two journalists in the Rajya Sabha elections – Pioneer editor Chandan Mitra, 56, from Madhya Pradesh and former RSS Hindi mouthpiece Panchjanya editor Tarun Vijay, 49, from Uttarakhand.

Mitra was earlier a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha from 2003 to 2009. Tarun Vijay, who himself hails from Uttarakhand, is now one of the national spokespersons of the BJP.  Party vice-president and yesteryears' actress Hema Malini, who was also a nominated member between 2003 and 2009, appears to have been left out.

The BJP parliamentary board that met here on Friday also decided to field former Lok Sabha member V P Singh, who lost to Rural Development Minister C P Joshi in the last elections from Bhilwara, as its
candidate from Rajasthan and gave another term to Anil Madhav Dave from Madhya Pradesh.

BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar told reporters after the board meeting, which was also attended by L K Advani, that it authorised BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who presided over the meeting, to take the
decision about the surplus votes of the party that can enable election of its third candidate in Karnataka and second candidate in Rajasthan. He will also decide on what to do with 18 votes in Jharkhand and seven in Orissa that cannot enable the party win any seat.

Ananth Kumar evaded all questions on a Rajya Sabha ticket to noted lawyer and former law minister Ram Jethmalani, 87, who had made a personal appeal to Advani in this reard. He has been the Rajya Sabha member since 1988, the first time from Karnataka on a Janata Dal ticket and two times later from Maharashtra as an independent. The last time, he became a nominated member of the house, courtesy Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad. His term expired in August 2009.

Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has cleared the name of former union Oscar  Fernandes for the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.