The BJP dropped Hardeep Puri and seven other sitting MPs from its Rajya Sabha list for Uttar Pradesh on Monday. The party named eight new candidates for the October 16 polls. This move balances caste representation and experience as the party prepares for the upcoming 2027 state Assembly elections ahead.
The BJP sprang a surprise on Monday by leaving Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma out of its Rajya Sabha nominations from Uttar Pradesh, naming eight candidates without retaining any of its outgoing MPs.
Arun Singh, Seema Dwivedi, Neeraj Shekhar, Brij Lal and Geeta Shakya also do not figure on the list. Dinesh Sharma, who previously held a Rajya Sabha seat from the state, is now the Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The party has fielded Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar.
Polling for 10 seats will be held on October 16. Based on the parties’ strength in the Assembly, the BJP is expected to win eight seats and the Samajwadi Party two.
CASTE REPRESENTATION AHEAD OF 2027 POLLS
The list combines caste representation and organisational experience as the BJP prepares for the 2027 Assembly elections.
It includes three OBC candidates, two Scheduled Caste candidates and three upper-caste candidates. Two nominees are women.
The OBC candidates represent the Lodhi, Pal and Kurmi communities, while the upper-caste nominees include two Brahmins and one Rajput.
Prakash Pal, who belongs to the OBC Pal community, is president of the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh OBC Morcha and has previously headed its Kanpur-Bundelkhand organisational region.
Vidyasagar Sonkar, a Dalit leader from Jaunpur, is a former MP and MLC. He has served as deputy leader in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and as a BJP state general secretary.
TWO WOMEN AMONG NOMINEES
The two women nominees are former Barabanki MP Priyanka Singh Rawat and Shruti Gangwar, daughter of Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar.
Rawat won the Barabanki Lok Sabha seat in 2014, defeating Congress veteran PL Punia.
Gangwar, an IIT graduate, chairs the Urban Co-operative Bank in Bareilly and is active in the Bareilly-Baheri region.
The list also includes Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, a BJP state general secretary and the party’s Western Uttar Pradesh region in-charge. He represented Etmadpur in Agra as an MLA from 2017 to 2022.
Radhakant Ojha is a senior advocate at the Allahabad High Court in Prayagraj and has been elected president of its Bar Association twice.
Gopi Krishna Pandey is a senior BJP organiser involved in grassroots campaigns and organisational work.