The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its list of candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh, leaving Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri out of the list.
The ruling party has named eight candidates—Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar—for the biennial elections to the Upper House.
The BJP’s announcement comes a day before the deadline for filing nominations. Elections to 12 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal will be held on October 16. These include 10 seats from Uttar Pradesh, one from Uttarakhand and a bypoll for one seat from West Bengal.
The terms of the sitting members from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand end on November 25.
Hardeep Puri dropped from BJP rajya sabha list
Puri, whose Rajya Sabha term from Uttar Pradesh is set to end on November 25, had been among the names reportedly under consideration for renomination. He was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2018 in a bypoll after then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar resigned from the Upper House to become Goa’s chief minister.
The list of outgoing members also includes Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP’s Ramji Gautam.
The Rajya Sabha seat held by former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma has been vacant since September 11, when he resigned after his appointment as Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
(With PTI inputs)
