In place of Samir Oraon whose term as Rajya Sabha MP ends on May 3, the Bharatiya Janata Party today announced general secretary of party's Jharkhand unit Pradip Varma as its candidate from Jharkhand for the Rajya Sabha Biennial elections. 

Varma will file his nomination on March 11. Following his nomination, Pradip Varma, who has 26000 followers in his Facebook account, has expressed gratitude towards the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

Rajya Sabha Biennial elections for two seats in Jharkhand are set to be held on March 21.

The Election Commission stated that fresh elections were necessitated as the tenure of two Rajya Sabha members from the state, Samir Oraon of the BJP and Dhiraj Prasad Sahu of the Congress, will end on May 3. 

The nominations, which started from March 4, will conclude on March 11. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is March 14. The polling will be held between 9 am and 4 pm on March 21 on the Jharkhand assembly premises.The counting of votes will be held on the same day at 5 pm.