The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday announced eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh, dropping all sitting members, denying tickets to two Union ministers, and inducting fresh faces that carefully balanced caste dynamics.
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, Hardeep Singh Puri, Geeta Shakya, Seema Dwivedi and Neeraj Shekhar — were among those whose terms are ending in November. One seat fell vacant following former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma’s resignation from the Rajya Sabha and his appointment as the lieutenant governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Dharampal Singh, a Lodh leader, is a legislator from Aonla and animal husbandry and dairy minister in Uttar Pradesh. Singh replaces BL Verma who is also a Lodh. Voters in the community have largely backed the BJP since the emergence of Lodh leader Kalyan Singh, who later become the state’s chief minister twice. Shruti Gangwar, an OBC leader from the Gangwar community in Bareilly, is the daughter of Santosh Gangwar, the Jharkhand governor, former Union minister and eight-time former MP. She currently serves as chairperson of the Bareilly Urban Cooperative Bank. Priyanka Singh Rawat, a Pasi leader, is former Lok Sabha member from Barabanki . She is also the BJP’s national vice-president. Her nomination will bring both Dalit and women’s representation to the new Rajya Sabha team. The Pasis are second-largest Dalit community after Jatavs in Uttar Pradesh. They are mostly located in districts like Barabanki, Lucknow , Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Barelli and Amethi. This is his political debut. He represents the Aonla Assembly constituency in Bareilly.
He served as a minister in the previous government also in 2017 but was dropped midway. The community is spread across western and central Uttar Pradesh , and has significant political weight, with the capacity to influence the outcome in around 70 of the state’s 403 assembly constituencies. She was denied a ticket in 2024. Radhakant Ojha, a senior advocate with the Allahabad high court , served as president of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association from 2015-16 and 2022-23.
Earlier reporting noted: Dharampal Singh is also a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, holding the Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development portfolio.
