NEW DELHI: BJP on Monday announced eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, leaving Union ministers Hardeep Puri and BL Verma out of the list.The party’s Central Election Committee approved the names for the 2026 Rajya Sabha biennial elections in the state and the eight candidates are:
- Dharampal Singh,
- Radhakant Ojha
- Prakash Pal
- Vidyasagar Sonkar
- Gopi Krishna Pandey
- Priyanka Singh Rawat
- Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and
- Shruti Gangwar.
The announcement was issued by Tarun Chugh, Rajya Sabha MP and the BJP’s national headquarters in-charge.The Election Commission of India (ECI) had earlier announced the schedule for biennial elections to 11 Rajya Sabha seats, 10 from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand, which will fall vacant in November following the retirement of sitting members.
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The retiring members from Uttar Pradesh include Union minister Hardeep Puri, Arun Singh, Brijlal, BL Verma, Ram Gopal Yadav, Neerja Shekhar, Geeta alias Chandraprabha, Ramji, Seema and Dinesh Sharma. Naresh Bansal is the lone retiring member from Uttarakhand.Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party has named Professor Ramgopal Yadav and Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani as its two candidates for the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.The last date for filing nominations is October 6, followed by scrutiny of nomination papers on October 7. Candidates can withdraw their nominations until October 9. Polling will be held on October 16 from 9am to 4pm, with counting scheduled on the same day.
