Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj, former Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar and Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh pointsman in the BJP Bal Apte are among the nine names cleared by the party's central election committee for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election.

Swaraj and former Union Sports Minister Vikram Verma would be fielded by the party from Madhya Pradesh, while Katiyar and former state unit chief Kalraj Mishra have been named for the Upper House from Uttar Pradesh. Party vice-president Apte would be fielded from Maharashtra, while Chief Whip in Rajya Sabha S S Ahluwalia would be nominated from Jharkhand, BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan told reporters. Gopalji Vyas (Chhattisgarh), Narayan Singh Kesari (SC) and Anusuya Uikey (ST) both from Madhya Pradesh were the other three names cleared during the two-hour-long meeting chaired by party president Rajnath Singh.

The meeting, attended among others by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leaders of Opposition L K Advani and Jaswant Singh, also decided on the names of Ashok Dhawan and Ram Naresh Rawat (SC) for the election to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

The leaders would meet again later in the day to clear the remaining eight names.