A day after Ashok Chavan quit the Congress party and joined the BJP in Mumbai, the saffron party has named him as party’s candidate for Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra. Reports said that the BJP leadership has also named the incumbent party president JP Nadda as the party’s candidate for Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat.

On Tuesday, amid chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, the state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule inducted Chavan and his supporter, ex-MLC Amar Rajurkar at party headquarters in Mumbai. Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and a host of BJP leaders welcomed the two-time CM, who left the Congress after 38 years on Monday.