New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu nominated former foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, special public prosecutor in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case Ujjwal Nikam, Kerala BJP leader C. Sadanandan Master and historian Meenakshi Jain to the Rajya Sabha on Sunday (July 14).The nominations were notified by the Union home ministry as part of the President’s powers under Article 80 of the Indian constitution.The President of India can nominate up to 12 members to the Rajya Sabha as per Article 80, all of whom have to be experts from the field of arts, literature, sciences and social service. The President nominates such individuals on the advice of the Union government of the day – currently, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.Notably, between April and November 2026, there will be as many as 70 vacancies across party lines in the Rajya Sabha.It is for the first time that a foreign secretary has been nominated under Article 80 of the Constitution to the Upper House. Shringla served as the foreign secretary under the Modi government between January 2020 and April 2022. He was also the chief coordinator of the G20 Summit that India hosted in 2023.Meenakshi Jain, who has been nominated by the President as an expert of Indic historian, used to teach at the Gargi College in Delhi University. She is the daughter of Girilal Jain, former editor of The Times of India, who has written books on bringing back the old glory of Hinduism.Jain, seen close to the Modi government, has written books like Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries and the Changing Colonial Discourse. She has also authored an NCERT history textbook for Class XI, commissioned during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which had replaced a textbook co-authored by Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, among others. It was, however, removed when the UPA government came to power.Meanwhile, Nikam has been nominated as an expert of law. Prior to him, Ranjan Gogoi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in this category. Gogoi had become the first Supreme Court chief justice to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. His nomination was announced in 2020, just a few months after the judgement on Ayodhya Ram Mandir by the SC bench led by him.President Murmu also nominated RSS-affiliated BJP leader, C. Sadanandan Master, under the category of social services. In the past, the Modi government has used the nomination route several times to ensure its party members, or those affiliated to the right wing eco-system, enter the Rajya Sabha. In 2018, BJP politician and former Lok Sabha member Ram Shakal was nominated under Article 80 of the Constitution, also for social service. Swapan Dasgupta, a journalist, was also nominated by the President on the advice of the Narendra Modi government in 2016, but he resigned before his six-year term ended to contest as a BJP candidate from the Tarakeswar assembly seat. Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra had raised the issue of his disqualification from the Rajya Sabha under the anti-defection law. As per the law, a Rajya Sabha member can join a party within six months of their nomination whereas in Dasgupta’s case, it was done much after six months had passed.Along with Dasgupta, the Modi government had also nominated Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi in 2016. However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Gopi was given the BJP ticket which he won. He is now the only BJP Lok Sabha member from Kerala. In 2016, right-wing politician Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati also nominated under social services. The same year, cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu was also nominated as a sportsperson by the President even before he resigned from the BJP. However, he quit the party that year and joined Congress in 2017. In 2021, Mahesh Jethmalani was also nominated, who was a national executive member of the BJP till 2012. In 2022, Ghulam Kumar Khatana was nominated as Rajya Sabha member who is currently the secretary and spokesperson of the BJP’s Kashmir unit.