New Delhi [India], June 5 (ANI): The Congress on Thursday released its list of seven candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled to be held on June 18.

The list includes party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who has been nominated from Karnataka.

The party has also nominated Mansoor Ali Khan and Pawan Khera from Karnataka, Meenakshi Natarajan from Madhya Pradesh.

Neeraj Dangi has been nominated from Rajasthan, while Praveen Chakravarty has been fielded from Tamil Nadu and Pranav Jha from Jharkhand.

On Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also released its official list of 11 candidates.

The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the party finalised the names of representatives across key states to contest the Upper House polls.

The list features several prominent state leaders, organisational heavyweights, and key strategists as the party looks to consolidate its upper-house strength.

The BJP has fielded Tai Tagak from Arunachal Pradesh; Rajubhai Shukla, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, Mansingh Parmar and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya from Gujarat; Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Agrawal from Madhya Pradesh; A Sharda Devi from Manipur; and Alka Gurjar and Satish Poonia from Rajasthan.

For the Rajya Sabha by-election in Odisha, the party has nominated Debashish Samantaray as its candidate.

Earlier, on June 3, the Election Commission issued a notification for biennial elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats from ten states.

This includes four seats each in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, three seats each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, two seats in Jharkhand, and one seat each in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya. The filing of nominations has begun, and the last date is June 8.

Notification was also issued for the Rajya Sabha bypoll for a seat each in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. (ANI)