BJP Drops Hardeep Puri, B L Verma from UP Rajya Sabha List Amid Caste and Regional Calculations

Yugcharan News / 06-10-2026

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left out Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and B L Verma from its list of eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, where polling is scheduled for October 16. The decision comes ahead of the expiry of their terms in the Upper House next month and has fuelled speculation about a possible reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers.

Puri is the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, while Verma is the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Social Justice and Empowerment. Their Rajya Sabha terms are scheduled to end on November 25.

Under constitutional provisions, both ministers can continue in the Union Council of Ministers for up to six months even if they are not members of either House of Parliament. However, their exclusion from the BJP's Rajya Sabha list has triggered political discussion over the party's future organisational and ministerial strategy.

BJP’s New UP Rajya Sabha Formula

The BJP has attempted to balance caste and regional representation in its latest list. Of the eight candidates announced from Uttar Pradesh, three belong to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), two are Brahmins, two are Dalits and one is a Thakur.

The composition marks an increase in the representation of OBC and Dalit candidates compared with the social profile of the eight BJP members whose seats are falling vacant. Those outgoing members included two OBCs, two Thakurs, two Brahmins, one Dalit and one Sikh.

Among the three OBC nominees is Dharampal Singh, BJP MLA from Aonla in Bareilly and a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Singh holds the Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development portfolio and belongs to the Lodh community.

His nomination is being viewed as significant because B L Verma, who has not been renominated, also belongs to the Lodh community. The Lodh community has a notable presence in the Rohilkhand and Bundelkhand regions of Uttar Pradesh and has traditionally been associated with the BJP's electoral support base.

The community's political connection with the BJP has also been linked to the late Kalyan Singh, a prominent Lodh leader and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister who played an important role in the party's expansion among OBC voters.

The BJP's other two OBC nominees are Prakash Pal, who heads the party's OBC Morcha in Uttar Pradesh and comes from Kanpur district, and Shruti Gangwar of Bareilly. Gangwar, an IIT graduate, is the daughter of Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar and has been active politically in the Bareilly-Baheri region.

Brahmin and Dalit Representation

The party's two Brahmin nominees are Radha Kant Ojha, a lawyer from Prayagraj and the younger brother of former minister Shivakant Ojha, and Gopi Krishna Pandey of Kanpur. Pandey has worked in the BJP's farmer and youth wings.

For the two Dalit seats, the BJP has nominated former Barabanki MP Priyanka Singh Rawat and Vidya Sagar Sonkar of Jaunpur. Rawat is currently a state BJP vice-president, while Sonkar is a former MLC and serves as a state general secretary of the party.

The eighth candidate is Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, a former MLA from Agra who currently serves as a BJP state general secretary with responsibility for the western region. He has also been associated with several important party campaigns.

The BJP has not renominated any of its seven remaining Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh whose terms are ending. The eighth vacancy among the party's earlier seats arose after Dinesh Sharma vacated his Rajya Sabha seat following his appointment as Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

SP Renominates Ram Gopal Yadav

The Samajwadi Party (SP), the principal Opposition party in Uttar Pradesh, has renominated veteran leader Ram Gopal Yadav for the Rajya Sabha. Yadav, who is the uncle of SP president Akhilesh Yadav, is also completing his current Rajya Sabha term next month.

The SP has nominated Dhanraj Nathwani, a Reliance executive, as its second candidate. Nathwani, 40, is the son of Parimal Nathwani, Reliance Industries Limited's Director of Corporate Affairs. Parimal Nathwani was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand in June 2026 as an NDA-backed Independent, securing his fourth consecutive term in the Upper House.

The SP has sufficient numbers in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly to secure the election of its first two candidates.

Another Rajya Sabha seat is becoming vacant following the retirement of Ramji Gautam, currently the lone Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) representative in Parliament.

Contest Likely for One Rajya Sabha Seat

While the BJP and SP are positioned to comfortably win seven and two seats respectively, the election could become competitive over the remaining seat.

The SP is considering fielding a third candidate, setting up a potential contest in the run-up to the high-stakes Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for February 2027.

At present, 396 of the 403 Assembly seats are occupied. Each Rajya Sabha candidate will require 37 first-preference votes for election.

The SP has 101 MLAs on the Assembly records, but its effective strength is considered to be 100 because Chail MLA Puja Pal, although still listed as an SP member in the Assembly records, has joined the BJP and currently serves as the party's state vice-president.

With the support of two Congress MLAs, the SP's effective support rises to 102 votes. This leaves the party nine votes short of the 111 first-preference votes required to secure the election of a third candidate.

BJP Counting on Cross-Voting Possibilities

The BJP has 255 MLAs in the Assembly. Its NDA allies add another 33 members, comprising 13 from Apna Dal (S), nine from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), six from the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and five from the Nishad Party.

With additional support from Puja Pal, three unaffiliated MLAs and two MLAs belonging to Raja Bhaiyya's Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik), the NDA's effective strength could reach 294.

That would leave the ruling alliance two votes short of the 296 first-preference votes required to ensure the election of all eight BJP candidates without relying on additional support.

The BJP is also looking towards MLAs Rakesh Pandey, Vinod Chaturvedi and Ashutosh Maurya, who had cross-voted in the 2024 Rajya Sabha elections but continue to be listed as SP members in the Assembly records.

Akhilesh Yadav had not expelled the three legislators, citing their "good conduct". Chaturvedi has indicated that he would vote for a BJP candidate in the upcoming Rajya Sabha election.

The numbers and potential cross-voting make the October 16 contest particularly significant, with the Rajya Sabha elections also taking place just months before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. The BJP's candidate selection, meanwhile, reflects an effort to recalibrate caste representation while maintaining its regional political equations in the state.