4
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s selection of eight candidates for the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh has been clearly influenced by the upcoming 2027 Assembly election, with caste and social representation emerging as important factors in deciding the candidates. The list combines OBC, Dalit, Brahmin and Thakur representation with regional and gender considerations, while largely favouring locally rooted organisational leaders over nationally prominent names.
The eight candidates are Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar. Taken together, the list provides representation to three OBC faces, two Dalit leaders, two Brahmins and one Thakur, while covering several political and social regions of the state.
Dharampal Singh, the UP minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development and MLA from Aonla, is among the prominent OBC leaders from western Uttar Pradesh and belongs to the Lodh Rajput community. Prakash Pal, the state president of the BJP’s OBC Morcha and former regional president of the Kanpur-Bundelkhand region, represents the Gadaria-Pal community.
Shruti Gangwar, a woman leader from the Bareilly-Rohilkhand region, belongs to the Kurmi OBC community. The three OBC selections therefore provide representation to different OBC communities as well as different geographical areas of Uttar Pradesh.
The Dalit representation comes through Vidya Sagar Sonkar, an MLC and former BJP state general secretary from the Jaunpur-Purvanchal region, and Priyanka Singh Rawat, former Lok Sabha MP from Barabanki and a BJP state secretary who belongs to the Pasi community.
The Brahmin representation comes through senior advocate Radhakant Ojha, a former president of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association, and Gopi Krishna Pandey, a senior organisational leader who has worked among the Brahmin community in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Awadh.
Ram Pratap Chauhan, a former MLA from Etmadpur in Agra, provides representation to the Thakur community and the Braj region.
While the top seven are expected to win easily, political management by the BJP leaders would be needed to ensure the victory of Gangwar given the number of BJP MLAs in the state.
The social matrix of the candidates assumes particular importance because the Rajya Sabha nominations have been made less than a year before the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.
The BJP has to maintain a broad social coalition in a state where caste remains a major factor in electoral mobilisation. The selection of candidates from different OBC communities, Dalit groups and upper-caste sections, alongside representation from western UP, Rohilkhand, Braj, Awadh, Purvanchal and the Kanpur-Bundelkhand region, indicates that the social and geographical profile of each candidate was an important consideration in the final selection.
The selections are also notable because the party has chosen locally rooted organisational faces rather than parachuting in nationally prominent personalities. None of the eight outgoing BJP Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh has been renominated.
Among those left out are Union Cabinet minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Union minister of state B.L. Verma. Puri, who has represented Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha since 2020, had figured prominently in speculation over the BJP’s possible choices. Verma was also elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in 2020 before joining the Union Council of Ministers.
Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and a three-term Rajya Sabha member, has also not been renominated. His exclusion is significant given his long parliamentary career and political association with eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Several individuals were trying for the Rajya Sabha nomination and had reached out to top leaders for support, but all of them have been left disappointed. Poet Kumar Vishwas was among those whose names were in circulation. His possible candidature had generated considerable political interest, particularly because he is not part of the BJP’s organisational structure. His name, however, did not make the final list.
The final selections indicate that individual prominence did not determine the outcome. The BJP leadership instead opted for candidates with established roots in the state’s political and organisational structure and profiles that fit its social and regional requirements.
With the denial of renomination to Hardeep Singh Puri and B.L. Verma, further space has now been created in the Union Council of Ministers for the BJP leadership to make fresh inductions. Both are currently members of the Union Council of Ministers.
This comes after a series of vacancies in the Union Council of Ministers. Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Education Minister on 25 July, while Ravneet Singh Bittu resigned as Minister of State after the end of his Rajya Sabha term. George Kurian also resigned as Minister of State after losing his Rajya Sabha seat.
The candidates in todays list are not nationally prominent names but are largely leaders who have built their political careers within Uttar Pradesh and have identifiable organisational, regional or social constituencies.
The final names were decided at the top level, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi deciding the candidates after the names were discussed within the party. The outcome also shows that several aspirants who had expected their political standing, connections or access to senior leaders to help secure a nomination did not make the cut.