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Rajya Sabha polls: BJP fields eight fresh faces in UP, drops all seven outgoing members, including Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, BL Verma
The new list comprises three OBCs, two SC candidates and three from the upper castes, including two Brahmins and a Rajput. Two of the eight nominees are women.
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Living up to its reputation for springing surprises, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday announced eight candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh, opting for several new names—largely organisational and state-level faces—who had not figured prominently in the speculation over the past few days and dropping all its seven outgoing members from the state, including Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma.
The much-awaited announcement came hours after BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh met chief minister Yogi Adityanath at his official residence here. The meeting, which lasted one-and-a-half hours, came a day before the last date for filing nominations. The election is scheduled for October 16.
The candidates are Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar.
Seven BJP members—Arun Singh, BL Verma, Brijlal, Union petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Geeta Shakya, Seema Dwivedi and Neeraj Shekhar—are among those whose terms are ending in November. One seat has fallen vacant following former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma’s resignation from the Rajya Sabha after his appointment as the lieutenant governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The new list comprises three OBCs, two Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates and three from the upper castes, including two Brahmins and a Rajput. Two of the eight nominees are women.
The BJP-led NDA has enough numbers to secure seven seats comfortably. However, to elect the eighth candidate, it may have to depend on possible cross-voting and it is likely to require at least two additional votes.
It is believed that for the BJP, the selection of candidates also marks a striking organisation-first approach. A senior BJP leader described it as probably the first time in recent history that all eight Rajya Sabha nominees from the state drawn from the party’s organisational fold are ideologically rooted in the BJP.
“In the past, the party has accommodated one or two prominent outsiders or leaders with a different profile—a civil servant, industrialist, public figure or a turncoat in its Rajya Sabha nominations. This time, however, the list is dominated by leaders and functionaries who have long been associated with the Sangh Parivar,” the party leader said.
The choices also indicate that while the BJP has changed its Rajya Sabha faces, it has sought continuity in the representation of several groups.
Dharampal Singh, a Lodh leader, is an MLA from Aonla and cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. He served as a minister in the previous government also in 2017 but was dropped midway. He has a long organisational experience as well.
Singh replaces outgoing Rajya Sabha member and Union minister of state BL Verma who is also a Lodh, thereby changing the individual face without changing the representation of the dominant Lodh community.
Rajnikant Ojha, a senior advocate with the Allahabad high court, has served as president of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association. The party has brought him as a Brahmin face.
Prakash Pal is an OBC leader and currently heads the BJP’s OBC Morcha in UP. He represents the Pal community and comes from Kanpur-Bundelkhand region.
Vidyasagar Sonkar is a veteran Dalit leader who has served as Lok Sabha member from Saidpur in Purvanchal in 1996 and later as a member of the UP Vidhan Parishad. He has also held organisational responsibilities in the state BJP.
Gopi Krishna Pandey is a Brahmin leader associated with the BJP organisation. Seen as a low-profile leader, he began his public life as a child volunteer and later became active through the ABVP. Coming from Balia in eastern UP, Pandey has served as state secretary in the BJP.
Priyanka Singh Rawat, a Pasi leader, is former Lok Sabha member from Barabanki. She was denied a ticket in 2024. She is also the national vice-president in BJP national president Nitin Nabin’s team. Her nomination will bring both Dalit and women’s representation to the new Rajya Sabha team.
Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, a Thakur leader from Agra, is a former BJP MLA from Etmadpur and has held organisational responsibilities in the party. Currently, he serves as state general secretary in UP BJP.
Shruti Gangwar, an OBC leader from the Gangwar community in Bareilly is the daughter of Santosh Gangwar, the Jharkhand governor, former Union minister and eight-time former MP.
She has been associated with the party for a long time and currently serves as chairperson of the Bareilly Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd.
The nominations are significant given that the UP assembly election is due next year. The BJP’s choice of largely organisational and state-level faces, instead of several prominent names that were discussed, is also believed to indicate the importance the party has attached to its workers and caste equations.
