UP Rajya Sabha Elections: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday announced names of eight candidates for the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha elections. The saffron party dropped two Union Ministers - Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma, whose membership to the Upper House is set to end on November 25. Verma is a Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, while Puri holds the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

BJP issues a list of 8 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha. https://t.co/k6dfExHwvY

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Here Is The List Of Candidates: 

1. Dharampal Singh

2. Radhakant Ojha

3. Prakash Pal

4. Vidyasagar Sonkar

5. Gopi Krishna Pandey

6. Priyanka Singh Rawat

7. Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan

8. Shruti Gangwar

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Prominent Drops

Barring Puri and Verma, other prominent BJP leaders who could not get a ticket to re-enter the Rajya Sabha are: former BJP national general secretary Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Seema Dwivedi, and former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar.

Voting and Results On Oct 16

According to the Election Commission schedule, October 6 is the last date for filing nominations. Scrutiny will be held on October 7 and candidates can withdraw their nominations till October 9. Polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on October 16, followed by counting of votes on the same day.

In the 2024 Rajya Sabha elections, all eight BJP candidates were elected from Uttar Pradesh, while the SP's two candidates Jaya Bachchan and Ramji Lal Suman won. The SP had fielded former UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan as its third candidate, but he lost. In that election, the BJP fielded an eighth candidate despite having the numbers to get seven elected unopposed, forcing a contest.

Number Strenth Party-Wise In UP Assembly

Following the recent death of BJP MLA from Agra's Fatehabad assembly constituency Chhotelal Verma, the BJP-led alliance has 288 MLAs in the 403-Uttar Pradesh assembly. This includes 255 BJP MLAs, 13 MLAs from Apna Dal (Sonelal), 9 MLAs from the Rashtriya Lok Dal, 6 from the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party and 5 from NISHAD party. The SP-Congress combine has about 103, which includes 101 SP MLAs. Jansatta Dal Loktantrik has 2 MLAs, while there are 3 unattached MLAs including UP Cabinet minister Manoj Kumar Pandey. 

(With Agencies Inputs)