Gandhinagar, Feb 13 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named Pravin Naik, former Surat unit president, as its candidate for a Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat. He will file his nomination papers here Monday.

The seat fell vacant following the death of Suryakant Acharya in December.

Naik, a 72-year-old engineer by education, is an old Jan Sangh hand with a long record of service to the party. If elected, he will hold office till August 2011.

He will be the third Rajya Sabha member from south Gujarat, the other two being Bharatsinh Parmar from Bharuch and Kanjibhai Patel from Valsad.

Naik is expected to sail through since the seat was held by BJP's Acharya.