The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to announce its nominees on Monday for the October 16 biennial Rajya Sabha election from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, a day before the last nomination date. It is set to comfortably win eight of the 10 seats in the country’s most populous state. The Samajwadi Party (SP), which has 101 lawmakers in the 403-member state assembly, has the numbers to win the remaining two seats.
Earlier reporting noted: The SP has already announced two candidates —party veteran Ram Gopal Yadav and Reliance Industries Group president Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani, who are set to comfortably get elected based on the party’s numerical strength in the Uttar Pradesh assembly. Earlier reporting noted: According to sources, the BJP will announce its Rajya Sabha candidates on Monday, but it is not clear whether it will announce eight or nine candidates. Earlier reporting noted: “The BJP will announce RS candidates on Monday.
“It is par for the course to guess names. The terms of Arun Singh, Geeta alias Chandraprabha, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal, BL Verma, Seema Dwivedi and Puri are ending in November. SP renominated Yadav. The term of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s Ramji Gautam is also ending. The party does not have the numbers for any representation in Parliament.
Dinesh Sharma vacated his Rajya Sabha seat on September 11 after he was appointed Andaman and Nicobar Islands Lieutenant Governor. This will be the first time since 1994 that the BSP will have no presence in the Rajya Sabha.
Since assembly polls are due next year, there is a lot of curiosity about the nominees, as people will read these as signals of how the party is balancing the caste and gender equations,” the functionary said. As of now, both the BJP and the SP are watching each other’s move with regard to fielding the 11th candidate,” a minister in the UP government said.
The Rajya Sabha terms of Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma are set to end in November, and they are expected to be renominated from Uttar Pradesh. Caste, gender and demographic considerations are expected to be factored in while picking the nominees.
The BJP is likely to field at least three women, said a functionary.
