Lucknow, Oct 5: The BJP has opted for caste and regional balance over prominent national faces in its Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha nominations, dropping Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and former Union minister Smriti Irani while fielding eight new candidates ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.
The list combines OBC, Dalit and upper-caste representation with two women nominees, signalling the party's focus on social and regional equations in the politically crucial state.
The party on Monday named eight candidates for the October 16 Rajya Sabha elections: Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar. The BJP is expected to win eight of the 10 seats falling vacant from the state.
Caste and regional balance
The list has three OBC candidates, two Dalits, two Brahmins and one Thakur. It also includes two women, with Priyanka Singh Rawat representing the Pasi community and Shruti Gangwar the Kurmi community. The choices provide representation to different regions, including western Uttar Pradesh, Rohilkhand, Kanpur-Bundelkhand, Prayagraj, Purvanchal and the Braj region.
The nominations come against the backdrop of the BJP's preparations for the 2027 Assembly elections, where caste representation is expected to remain a key political factor. The party's choices also underline a preference for leaders with an organisational base in the state rather than relying on prominent national faces.
Community representation in nominations
Dharampal Singh, a Lodh leader from Bareilly's Aonla, is a Cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. His nomination gives representation to the Lodh community, particularly significant in Rohilkhand and Bundelkhand. Prakash Pal, who heads the BJP's OBC Morcha in Uttar Pradesh, represents the Pal community and has organisational experience in the Kanpur-Bundelkhand region.
The two Brahmin nominees are Radhakant Ojha, a senior lawyer from Prayagraj, and Gopi Krishna Pandey, who has worked with the party's farmer and youth wings. The Dalit representation comes through former Barabanki MP Priyanka Singh Rawat and former MP and MLC Vidyasagar Sonkar. Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, a state BJP general secretary from Agra, represents the Thakur community.
The inclusion of Shruti Gangwar, daughter of Jharkhand Governor and former Union minister Santosh Gangwar, adds another dimension to the selection. A Kurmi leader from the Bareilly region, she brings both OBC and gender representation to the list.
Prominent national faces excluded
The BJP's decision also shuts the door on several prominent names that had figured in speculation before the announcement. Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and former Union minister Smriti Irani were among the names discussed for nomination, but neither found a place in the final list. The BJP's state-level panel had reportedly included Puri and Irani among a larger pool of names considered for the eight seats.
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Puri, whose Rajya Sabha term from Uttar Pradesh ends in November, has not been renominated. His exclusion, along with that of Union minister BL Verma, has also triggered speculation about changes in the Union Council of Ministers. The BJP, however, has not officially linked the Rajya Sabha nominations to any Cabinet reshuffle.
Focus on 2027 elections
The BJP's list therefore goes beyond filling eight Rajya Sabha vacancies. With the Assembly election less than a year away, the nominations bring the party's caste and regional calculations, organisational priorities and representation of women into sharper focus in Uttar Pradesh.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
