The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced the names of eight candidates for Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
The names of the candidates are Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, and Shruti Gnagwar. Their names were announced after they were approved by the BJP Central Election Committee.
The Election Commission announced the dates for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The polls are scheduled to be held on October 16, 2026. The last date for filing nominations is October 6, 2026. The elections will be held for 11 Rajya Sabha seats, comprising 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh and one seat in Uttarakhand.
A bypoll for one Rajya Sabha seat in West Bengal, which was vacated after the resignation of TMC MP Rukmini Mallik, will also be organised. Rukmini Mallik, popularly known as Koel Mallik, joined the BJP on Monday after resigning from the TMC. She has been nominated by the BJP for the same Rajya Sabha seat she resigned from.
The Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh are being vacated by Union Minister Hardeep Puri, Arun Singh, Brijlal, BL Verma, Ram Gopal Yadav, Neerja Shekhar, Geeta Alias Chandraprabha, Ramji, Seema, and Dr Dinesh Sharma.
Let’s take a look at the candidates announced by the BJP: Dharampal Singh is a senior BJP leader and 5-term MLA who currently serves as Cabinet Minister for Animal Husbandry & Dairying in the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Radhakant Ojha is a Senior Advocate and former President of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association (HCBA). He has served as the convenor of the BJP Kashi region legal wing.
Prakash Pal is a longtime organisational leader and former RSS pracharak. He is currently the Uttar Pradesh OBC Morcha President for the BJP and has served as the BJP Regional President for the Kanpur-Bundelkhand region. Vidyasagar Sonkar is a Dalit leader, former Lok Sabha MP (from Saidpur), former UP Legislative Council (MLC) member, and has served as the State General Secretary of the BJP in UP.
Gopi Krishna Pandey has long been associated with RSS and has held national roles in the BJP Kisan Morcha and BJP Yuva Morcha. Priyanka Singh Akhawat is a former Member of Parliament (16th Lok Sabha) from Barabanki. She defeated Congress veteran P. L. Punia in 2014.
Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan is a former BJP MLA from Etmadpur (Agra) and a former BJP UP State General Secretary who has held organisational responsibilities for the party in Western UP. Shruti Gangwar is the chairman of the Urban Cooperative Bank. She is the daughter of 8-term Bareilly MP, former Union Minister, and current Jharkhand Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar.