Lucknow: The BJP on Monday announced eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, with none of its sitting MPs being renominated.
The candidates include state minister Dharampal Singh, senior advocate Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, former Lok Sabha MP Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, former MP Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar.
The list reflects an effort to maintain caste and social balance ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Three candidates are from the OBC category, two are Dalits and three belong to the general category. Two are women. Among the general-category candidates are two Brahmins and a Rajput, while the OBC candidates represent the Lodhi, Pal and Kurmi communities.
One of the prominent names is Dharampal Singh, a Lodhi leader who is speculated to replace Union minister BL Verma, whose Rajya Sabha term ends in November. A senior BJP leader from Aonla in Bareilly, Singh has been elected MLA several times and is currently a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, holding the portfolios of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development.
Verma’s name does not figure in the list. Other sitting Rajya Sabha members not renominated include Hardeep Singh Puri, Arun Singh, Seema Dwivedi, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal and Geeta Shakya. Former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma’s Rajya Sabha seat has also been vacant since September, when his resignation took effect following his appointment as Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The BJP’s choices also indicate a focus on organisational experience and links with the RSS. Prakash Pal, from the Pal community, is president of the BJP’s UP OBC Morcha and has served as a regional organisational office-bearer. The Pal community is generally counted among the Gadariya groups within the OBC category.
Gopi Krishna Pandey has been picked as a Brahmin face and has links with the RSS.
Vidyasagar Sonkar, a Dalit leader from eastern Uttar Pradesh, has held several key positions in the BJP. A former MLC and Lok Sabha MP from Machhlishahr, he has also served as the party’s state general secretary. He was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from Saidpur (SC) in 1996.
Priyanka Singh Rawat, another Dalit face, is a former Lok Sabha MP from Barabanki. She won the 2014 Lok Sabha election from the constituency, defeating senior Congress leader P.L. Punia.
Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan is a senior BJP organisational leader from the state. He was appointed a state general secretary during organisational changes in June and was given responsibility for the western Uttar Pradesh region in August.
Senior advocate Radhakant Ojha, originally from Pratapgarh, is a senior advocate at the Allahabad High Court and has previously served as president of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association. His brother Shivakant Ojha was elected an MLA from Pratapgarh on a BJP ticket and later served as a minister.
The BJP has also chosen Shruti Gangwar, a Kurmi face from Bareilly. She is the daughter of former Union minister and current Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar and a resident of Bareilly. She had been preparing for the upcoming Assembly elections and has been active in the Baheri constituency ahead of the 2027 polls.
According to a senior UP BJP leader, the party’s list was more surprising than the Samajwadi Party’s.
“Except Priyanka Rawat, most of the names initially proposed by the state organisation were not considered. The central leadership appears to have researched the names independently and may also have taken feedback from the RSS before finalising the candidates. Most of the big names are missing, but the caste balance has been maintained,” the leader said.
SP to field a third candidate?
Elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held on October 16. A candidate needs 37 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat in the state.
Of the 403 Assembly seats, seven are currently vacant, leaving 396 sitting MLAs. The NDA has 289 MLAs, including 256 from the BJP, 13 from Apna Dal (Sonelal), nine from the RLD, six from the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and five from the Nishad Party.
Based on the current numbers, the BJP-led NDA is in a position to win eight Rajya Sabha seats, while the Samajwadi Party is expected to secure two.
The Akhilesh Yadav-led SP has so far named two candidates—party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav and Reliance executive Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani. However, the contest could become more interesting if the SP fields a third candidate. The party has some surplus votes after accounting for the two seats it is expected to win and could seek additional support from opposition allies or other MLAs for a third candidate.
(Edited by Chingkheinganbi Mayengbam)
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