New Delhi/Lucknow, Oct 5: The BJP on Monday announced the names of eight candidates, including minister Dharampal Singh, for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, dropping Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and all others who are set to complete their terms next month.
The party also fielded Shruti Gangwar, daughter of Jharkhand Governor and former Union minister Santosh Gangwar, as its candidate from the state.
The other seven candidates are Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat and Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, a BJP statement said.
The names of these eight candidates have been approved by the BJP Central Election Committee, the party said.
Among the Rajya Sabha members retiring from the state are BJP leaders Hardeep Singh Puri, B L Verma, Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal and Seema Dwivedi, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP’s Ramji Gautam.
Verma, who is also a Union minister, did not find a mention in the list of Rajya Sabha candidates from UP.
BJP sources said the party approved the names of its candidates keeping in mind balancing of social, regional and caste combinations.
“The list has three candidates from the upper castes, including Radhakant Ojha and Gopi Krishna Pandey, both Brahmins, while three others come from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and two from Scheduled Castes (SCs). Of the eight candidates, two are women,” a BJP leader told PTI.
While UP minister Dharampal Singh (Lodh), Shruti Gangwar (Kurmi) and Prakash Pal are OBCs, Vidya Sagar Sonkar and Priyanka Singh Rawat are Dalits, and Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan is a Thakur.
Elections to 12 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal will be held on October 16.
These include 10 seats from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand, along with a bypoll to one seat from West Bengal. The terms of the sitting members from UP and Uttarakhand end on November 25.
The Rajya Sabha seat held by former UP deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma has also been vacant since September 11, when his resignation took effect following his appointment as the Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
All eight BJP candidates will file their nominations on Tuesday, the last day for doing so.
The Samajwadi Party has already declared two candidates — Ram Gopal Yadav and Reliance Industries Group president Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani.
After the BJP announced its candidates on Monday, 10 nominees are now in the fray for as many seats.
If the situation stands as it is till the close of nominations on Tuesday, all 10 nominated candidates would be elected unopposed. With the 2027 UP polls just a few months away, both the BJP and the SP are engaged in posturing.
The SP has purchased three sets of nomination papers and even the BJP has kept the suspense of a contest alive by purchasing nine sets of nomination papers, indicating their intention of spicing up the contest.
“All our candidates will win easily. In fact, we could even ensure the win of the ninth candidate,” BJP’s OBC wing chief Prakash Pal told reporters soon after being named as the party’s RS candidate.
Pal was seen hugging UP minister J P S Rathore, who has been a key strategist in previous Rajya Sabha polls in UP that witnessed a contest.
On their part, the SP too has been building suspense. “Of course, we will field a third candidate,” SP’s Chandauli MP Birendra Singh had told PTI earlier, reiterating a line taken by SP MLA Ravidas Mehrotra.
Some of the eight names in the BJP’s list caught many by surprise. Radhakant Ojha, for instance, is a former president of the High Court Bar Association, Prayagraj, and has been an old party hand. The general impression in the BJP is that such names have been picked to keep the party’s homegrown cadre in good humour ahead of 2027 UP polls.
A balancing act also seems to be on display with the BJP naming UP minister Dharampal Singh, a Lodh leader and five-term sitting MLA from Aonla assembly segment, among its picks, ostensibly to offset the exclusion of B L Verma, also a prominent Lodh leader.
“Maybe, the party has some plans for him in the 2027 UP polls,” a BJP leader said, adding that all additions and deletions in the Rajya Sabha list have been done with careful planning.
“Look at UP BJP OBC wing head Prakash Pal, who is among the eight candidates. Apart from OBC outreach, it is also to balance the caste appeal of state chiefs of BSP and SP, both of whom are Pals,” the BJP leader said.
The SP’s state chief is Shyam Lal Pal while the BSP has Vishwanath Pal as its state president.
Former UP DGP Brij Lal, a Dalit leader from east UP, has been replaced with another Dalit leader in Vidya Sagar Sonkar, an old party hand, who has held many organisational posts.
Another BJP candidate, Priyanka Singh Rawat, who had publicly cried after missing out on the party’s ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Barabanki and was subsequently adjusted in the party organisation, has got a Rajya Sabha nomination.
“It’s a clear message that the party rewards those who are prepared to wait and keep doing their job,” a BJP leader told PTI.
Apart from Rawat, the other woman in the BJP list is Shruti Gangwar, a former chairperson of Urban Cooperative Bank, Bareilly and daughter of Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar.
Two other names which took many by surprise include Gopi Krishna Pandey, a veteran from Kanpur, and Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, who is a current general secretary in UP BJP.
Some SP leaders indicated that many MLAs from BJP and its ally like the SBSP were in touch, indicating plans to poach the NDA to ensure the win of its third candidate, if it fields one.
“Let them do whatever they want. Over two dozen SP MLAs are in touch too,” said UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, indicating that neither of the two parties was willing to lower its guard for these polls, which many believe would also set the template for the 2027 polls.
