UP Rajya Sabha elections: BJP releases list of 8 candidates; Ministers Hardeep Puri, BL Verma dropped

The BJP has announced eight candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, where polls will be held for 10 seats. Notably, several current members are not included. The Samajwadi Party also named two candidates. Nominations are due on October 6 with voting on October 16.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released a list of eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, where polling will be held for 10 seats. Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma, both among the BJP members whose Rajya Sabha terms are ending, were not included in the list.

The eight candidates named by the BJP are Uttar Pradesh minister Dharam Pal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar, according to a party statement.

"The list has three candidates from the upper castes, including Radhakant Ojha and Gopi Krishna Pandey, both Brahmins. Two of the candidates are women, three come from Other Backward Classes and two from Scheduled Castes," PTI quoted a BJP leader as saying.

The names of all eight candidates were approved by the BJP's Central Election Committee, the party said.

Other Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh whose terms are ending include Arun Singh, Brijlal, Ram Gopal Yadav, Neerja Shekhar, Geeta alias Chandraprabha, Ramji, Seema and Dr Dinesh Sharma.

SP names two candidates

The Samajwadi Party has announced Professor Ramgopal Yadav and Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani as its two candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had earlier announced the schedule for biennial elections to 11 Rajya Sabha seats, including 10 from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand. The seats will fall vacant in November as the terms of the incumbent members come to an end.

RS poll in Uttarakhand

Naresh Bansal is the only retiring Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand. On October 4, the BJP announced Dinesh Arya as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from Uttarakhand.

Bengal RS by-election

Meanwhile, a by-election will be held for a vacant Rajya Sabha seat in West Bengal following the resignation of TMC MP Rukmini Mallik. The BJP named Rukmini Mallick, also known as Koel Mallick, as its candidate for the by-election.

Speaking to reporters, Mallick said she was impressed by the development work undertaken in West Bengal in recent months and joined the BJP with the intention of contributing to the process. She thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Adhikari and said she wanted to serve people by following their example.

She said she viewed her nomination as a major responsibility and wanted to focus on issues affecting ordinary people rather than simply criticising the government, as per PTI. Recalling conversations with her father about problems in the state, Mallick said she now wanted to raise such concerns and work on them on the ground.

Rajya Sabha polling on October 16

The deadline for filing nominations is October 6, followed by scrutiny of nomination papers on October 7. Candidates can withdraw their nominations until October 9. Voting for the Rajya Sabha seats will be held on October 16 from 9 am to 4 pm, with counting scheduled for the same day.

About the Author

Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers. <br><br> With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations. <br><br> Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’. <br><br> He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune. <br><br> He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP. <br><br> He can be reached on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/garvit-bhirani">LinkedIn</a> or on <a href="https://x.com/GarvitBhirani">@garvitbhirani</a> on X

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