Elections for 12 Rajya Sabha seats are to be held on October 16. Of these, maximum 10 seats are from Uttar Pradesh. October 6 is the last date for filing nominations.
Just a day before this, on October 5, BJP announced the names of its eight candidates for Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.
However, before the names of the candidates were revealed, many speculations were being made about the possible list of BJP.
Names like Smriti Irani, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjeev Balyan, Harish Dwivedi, Kaushal Kishore and Rajveer Singh were in discussion in the media.
There were also reports of about 20 names being considered within the party. But these names were not in the official list. BJP has not included any of its current seven Rajya Sabha MPs from UP in this list.
These seven MPs are Hardeep Singh Puri, BL Verma, Arun Singh, Seema Dwivedi, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal and Geeta Shakya.
Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma are also ministers in the Modi cabinet.
Apart from this, the vacant seat of former Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma is also included in this election. Dinesh Sharma had resigned from Rajya Sabha in September after being made the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar.
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BJP has fielded new candidates for all its eight seats in UP. The party calls it a routine work.
According to Rakesh Tripathi of BJP, the party decides the role of its workers according to time and need. He says that in this list, along with the leaders who have been working in the organization for a long time, people coming from different regions and social groups have also been included.
Rakesh Tripathi told BBC News Hindi, "This time, among the people who have been elected to the Rajya Sabha, there are leaders with long political and organizational experience and there are also faces who have no experience of Assembly or Lok Sabha politics."
"Dharampal Singh has been an MLA several times and a minister in the state government, Prakash Pal has been in the organization for a long time and has been the state president of the OBC front. Similarly, Vidyasagar Sonkar has previously been an MP and a member of the Legislative Council, Priyanka Rawat is a former Lok Sabha MP and Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan has been working in the organization for a long time. Leaders like Gopi Krishna Pandey have also been associated with the party's organization for years."
"That is, after careful consideration and consultation at different levels, the party has decided which role to give to which worker at which time."
Who are these eight new faces?
But the question is whether this decision is limited only to sending experienced BJP workers and workers associated with the organization to Rajya Sabha?
Or is there a bigger social and caste message behind this keeping in mind the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections?
To understand this, we first have to see who the eight faces chosen by BJP are and which social or regional base they represent.
Dharampal Singh is the Livestock Minister in Uttar Pradesh Government and MLA from Amla seat of Bareilly. He comes from Lodh community.
Prakash Pal is the state president of OBC Morcha of Uttar Pradesh BJP and has previously been the regional president of Kanpur-Bundelkhand region.
Shruti Gangwar is the daughter of senior BJP leader and Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar. She is the chairperson of Bareilly's Urban Co-operative Bank and a social worker. Shruti Gangwar also comes from OBC community.
Vidyasagar Sonkar is counted among the prominent Dalit leaders of BJP. He has been a Lok Sabha MP and Legislative Council member and has also held the responsibility of State General Secretary in the party.
Radhakant Ojha is a senior advocate of Allahabad High Court Bar Association and has been the President of the Bar Association twice.
Gopi Krishna Pandey has been associated with the BJP organization for a long time and is considered a senior organizer of the party.
Priyanka Singh Rawat is a former Lok Sabha MP from Barabanki and a prominent name among the women leaders of BJP. At the same time, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan is a former MLA from Etmadpur seat of Agra and is currently the state general secretary of Uttar Pradesh BJP.
In terms of social representation, there are three OBC, two Dalit and three general category candidates in the BJP list. Among them, two are Brahmins and one is Rajput. Two women are also included in this list.
Even at the regional level, efforts are visible to give representation to Western UP, Rohilkhand, Kanpur-Bundelkhand and Purvanchal.
The decision was taken keeping the UP elections in mind
This is the reason why political analysts are not only seeing this list as the selection of candidates for Rajya Sabha, but also as a part of BJP's social strategy before the 2027 assembly elections.
Senior journalist Mudit Mathur says, "The way BJP has given representation to different backward castes and other social groups, the preparations for the UP assembly elections are visible behind it."
He says that in the social equation through which BJP had included non-Yadav backward castes between 2014 and 2017, giving political representation to such communities was important.
Mudit Mathur said, "Now that there are signs of some distance or dissatisfaction among these communities regarding BJP, this list of Rajya Sabha can be seen as an attempt to strengthen that social equation again."
Senior journalist Nistullah Hebbar's analysis is also in the same direction.
Hebbar said, "In the list of candidates, attention has been given to the organization as well as caste and regional representation. By giving representation especially to the non-Yadav OBC and Dalit communities, BJP seems to be trying to keep its social alliance strong before the 2027 assembly elections. At the same time, by giving a chance to new people, it is trying to send a message to the workers that there is a place for everyone in the party."
Why don't Hardeep Puri and BL Verma get a chance?
An important aspect of this entire list is that BJP has decided not to send both Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma to Rajya Sabha again.
The Rajya Sabha tenure of both is ending on 25 November 2026. Puri reached Rajya Sabha in 2018 and was re-elected in 2020.
After Puri was not re-sent to the Rajya Sabha, speculations have definitely started about his future. However, it would be premature to consider this as a direct indication of his sidelining in the party. This possibility is also being seen within BJP that he may be kept in some other responsibility in future.
He says, "In BJP, we have seen many leaders working in different roles. For example, Dr. Dinesh Sharma was first the Deputy Chief Minister, then he was sent to the Rajya Sabha and now he has been given the responsibility of the Lieutenant Governor. Therefore, if a leader does not get the Rajya Sabha ticket, it does not mean that his political role is over. We will have to wait a little to know what will be the role of Hardeep Puri and BL Verma in the future."
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