The Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh were shaping up as a routine and predictable numbers game in which the BJP was poised to win eight seats and the Samajwadi Party (SP) two. But the sudden entry of Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani, a corporate executive with Gujarat connections, as a Samajwadi Party candidate has spiced up the battle.
Another theory doing the rounds relates to the resource requirements of the 2027 assembly election. The SP and the Congress together have 103 MLAs on paper, enough to secure two seats with 74 votes, leaving 29 votes surplus but eight short of the required votes to elect a third candidate. That would require it to mobilise at least eight additional votes and all 103 members must remain available and vote along party lines.
Nathwani, a senior corporate executive associated with Reliance Industries and sports administrator from Gujarat, was a surprise choice for a party when the names doing the rounds included former chief secretary Alok Ranjan and former Union minister Salim Iqbal Sherwani, besides five-term Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav. Besides his corporate role, Nathwani is president of the Gujarat Cricket Association, a position he took over after Union home minister Amit Shah. His father, Parimal Nathwani, is a BJP-backed Rajya Sabha member from Jharkhand. It is widely believed that the SP will attempt a third seat.
In 2024 also, the SP attempted to go beyond its strength by fielding ex-chief secretary Alok Ranjan as a third candidate but lost.
The difference this time, according to many, lies in the profile of the surprise candidate whose entry has added a new dimension to an election otherwise dominated by caste and regional calculations.
