The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday approved the names of eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha biennial election in Uttar Pradesh.
The candidates named 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. A by-election will also be held for a casual vacancy in West Bengal caused by the resignation of Trinamool Congress MP Rukmini Mallik. The retiring Rajya Sabha 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 Dr 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 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. On October 4, the BJP named Dinesh Arya as its candidate from Uttarakhand and Rukmini Mallick, also known as Koel Mallick, for the West Bengal by-election.
