The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday announced eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha biennial elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The candidates approved by the party 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 made by Tarun Chugh, Rajya Sabha MP and the party's National Headquarters In-charge.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had earlier announced biennial elections for 11 Rajya Sabha seats, including 10 from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand. The seats will fall vacant in November following the retirement of the sitting members.
The retiring Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh are Union Minister Hardeep Puri, Arun Singh, Brijlal, BL Verma, Ram Gopal Yadav, Neerja Shekhar, Geeta Alias Chandraprabha, Ramji, Seema, and Dr Dinesh Sharma. Naresh Bansal is the lone retiring member from Uttarakhand.
With the latest announcement, Union Ministers Hardeep Puri and BL Verma have not been nominated by the BJP for the Upper House.
On October 4, the BJP had named Dinesh Arya as its candidate from Uttarakhand and Rukmini Mallick, also known as Koel Mallick, for the West Bengal Rajya Sabha by-election. The by-election has been necessitated by the resignation of TMC MP Rukmini Mallik.
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party has fielded 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 papers on October 7. Candidates can withdraw their nominations until October 9.
Polling for the Rajya Sabha elections will be held on October 16 from 9 am to 4 pm, with counting scheduled for the same day.