Lucknow, October 5 (Daily Kiran) : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its list of eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, scheduled for October 16. The selection aims to balance caste representation with organizational experience, featuring two women candidates, which underscores the party’s commitment to women’s empowerment and leadership.
Notably absent from the list is Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas. Along with him, fellow Union Minister B.L. Verma and several current MPs, including Arun Singh, Seema Dwivedi, Neeraj Shekhar, Brij Lal, and Geeta Shakya, have also been left out.
Puri and Verma’s terms in the Rajya Sabha are set to conclude next month. The newly announced candidates include Dharmapal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, and Shruti Gangwar.
The list reflects a diverse representation, with three candidates from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), two from Scheduled Castes (SC), and three from upper castes. Dharmapal Singh, a prominent face from the Lodhi community and a two-time minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, represents the Awamla seat in Bareilly. Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan serves as the state BJP’s general secretary and oversees several key party initiatives.
The OBC candidates hail from the Lodhi, Pal, and Kurmi communities, while the upper caste candidates include two Brahmins and one Rajput. The women candidates are Shruti Gangwar, daughter of Jharkhand’s Governor Santosh Gangwar, and former MP Priyanka Singh Rawat, who gained prominence by defeating veteran Congress leader P.L. Punia in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
This strategic selection reflects the party’s focus on caste dynamics, serving as a precursor to the significant assembly elections slated for next year.
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