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 election is scheduled for October 16. 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 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. 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. 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. 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.
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 meeting, which lasted one-and-a-half hours, came a day before the last date for filing nominations.
