External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday filed his nomination papers for elections to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and BJP Gujarat unit president C R Paatil accompanied Jaishankar to the state Assembly complex where he submitted the nomination papers to Returning Officer Rita Mehta.

The last date for filing nominations is July 13 and the deadline for withdrawal of nominations is July 17. Polling will be held on July 24 if required.

Four years ago, Jaishankar had filed his nomination for the first time from Gujarat for the Rajya Sabha.

Out of the 11 Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, eight are currently held by the BJP and rest by the Congress.

Of the eight seats held by the BJP, the terms of S Jaishankar, Jugalji Thakor and Dinesh Anavadiya will end on August 18. Polls will be held for these three seats.

The Congress on Friday said it would not field candidates for polls to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat as it did not have enough MLAs in the 182-member state Assembly.

The BJP won a record 156 seats in the Gujarat Assembly polls held late last year, while the Congress saw its worst performance since the state was formed by managing to get just 17 seats.

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