BJP names eight for Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha seats and leaves Puri and Irani off the list

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday named eight candidates for the biennial Rajya Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh, and left Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and former Union minister Smriti Irani off the list. The central election committee approved the names in New Delhi on 5 October. Ten seats from the state fall vacant. Puri's term from Uttar Pradesh expires in November.

The eight are Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar. ANI carried the party's list the same afternoon. Shruti Gangwar is the daughter of former Union minister Santosh Gangwar. Radhakant Ojha is an advocate at the Allahabad High Court. Dharampal Singh is the party's organisation minister in the state.

What the state panel sent up

The Tribune, citing BJP sources, reported that the state panel had put forward 22 names. That longer list included Puri, Irani and the poet Kumar Vishwas. The final cut, the same sources said, was made with the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in view. The party has not published a formal reason for dropping the better-known names. The arithmetic that matters is simpler: the BJP has named eight people for ten vacancies, which leaves two seats for allies or a later announcement.

Dharampal Singh belongs to the Lodhi community and replaces outgoing member B.L. Sharma, who is also Lodhi. The published list, as read by The Tribune, carries two Brahmin leaders and two Dalit faces. That is a caste map, not a manifesto. Lodhi, Brahmin and Dalit representation are the three groups the party has chosen to show in this batch. Puri, a Sikh minister whose term is the one actually ending, is not on it. Irani, who lost Amethi in 2024 and has no current House seat, is not on it either.

Why the omissions matter for 2027

Uttar Pradesh sends 31 members to the Rajya Sabha, the largest state delegation. A biennial round that fills ten of those seats resets a third of the state's voice in the upper house for six years. The BJP's choice to spend eight of its tickets on organisation and community leaders, rather than on a sitting Union minister and a former cabinet colleague, is a signal about where the party thinks the 2027 campaign will be won. Organisational posts and caste balance are being treated as more useful than name recognition in Delhi.

Priyanka Singh Rawat is a former MP. Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar are the Dalit names on the list as described by party sources. Gopi Krishna Pandey is one of the two Brahmin leaders. None of the eight has held a current Union portfolio. That is the contrast with Puri, who does.

The election date has not been notified in the announcements made on Monday. Nomination, withdrawal and polling will follow the Election Commission calendar once it is out. Until then the political fact is the list itself: eight names, two seats still unspoken for, and two of the most familiar names from the state panel left in the folder.

The 2027 Assembly election is the constraint the sources cited. A Rajya Sabha term runs six years, so these eight, if elected, will still be in the House at the end of the next state assembly. The party has chosen people it can defend in the districts over people it can defend on television. Whether the two unnamed seats go to allies, or come back to a name from the longer panel, is the decision still open on Monday evening.