The Bharatiya Janata Party has nominated Hardeep Singh Puri, currently a Union minister, for the upcoming Rajya Sabha bye-election in Madhya Pradesh. The election is scheduled for November 12.
The bye-poll became necessary following the resignation of L Murugan from the Upper House of Parliament and his role as a Union minister on October 14. According to the composition of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Puri is expected to win the seat unopposed.
Puri was previously a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh, a position he assumed in January 2018, four months after becoming a Union minister. His current term is set to expire on November 25. It's worth noting that Puri was not among the BJP candidates announced for the Rajya Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal earlier this month.
However, Puri's candidature has raised questions since early this year, particularly due to his association with American financier Jeffrey Epstein. Emails exchanges between the two began in June 2014 and were included in the 'Epstein files', a large collection of documents detailing Epstein's social circle that also included politicians, celebrities, and public figures.
The 'Epstein files' were released by the United States Department of Justice. Epstein is accused of sexually abusing underage girls and running a vast sex-trafficking network. He was arrested again in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving minors but died in a New York jail cell in August that year while awaiting trial.
Source:
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