Namo's much awaited Cabinet reshuffle on cards ::: BJP does caste management in UP Rajya Sabha candidates list, drops Union Minister Puri

BJP does caste management in UP Rajya Sabha candidates list, drops Union Minister Puri  

There is sub-regional balance too.

Priyanka Singh Rawat brings an Awadh connection and Prakash Pal represents the Kanpur-Bundelkhand belt. 

Dharampal Singh and Shruti Gangwar provide representation from Rohilkhand.   

Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan hails from western Uttar Pradesh and is organisational face. Vidyasagar Sonkar and Radhakant Ojha are associated with Purvanchal areas. 

The new list of saffron party candidates includes three OBC candidates, two Scheduled Caste candidates and three from the general category. 

Two of the eight nominees are women.  

TWO BRAHMINS, ONE THAKUR ON LIST

The upper-caste nominees include two Brahmins and one Thakur leader. Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan is a BJP state general secretary and its Western Uttar Pradesh region in-charge. He represented Etmadpur in Agra as an MLA from 2017 to 2022.

Radhakant Ojha is a senior advocate at the Allahabad High Court in Prayagraj and has been elected president of its Bar Association twice. Gopi Krishna Pandey is a senior BJP organiser involved in grassroots campaigns and organisational work.

Key leaders including Arun Singh and Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and another minister B L Verma have been dropped.  

The move by the party leadership is largely seen as a surprise move and is indicative of the fact that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will go ahead with his plans for cabinet reshuffle sooner than later.

Arun Singh 

Arun Singh, Seema Dwivedi, Neeraj Shekhar (former PM Chandrashekhar's son) , Brij Lal and Geeta Shakya also do not figure on the list. 

Dinesh Sharma, who previously held a Rajya Sabha seat from the state, is now the Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  

Vidyasagar Sonkar is a Dalit nominee. He is a leader from Jaunpur and former MP and MLC. He has served as deputy leader in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and as a BJP state general secretary.  

The candidates' list has three OBC names -  reflecting the BJP’s effort to balance caste representation and organisational experience ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls.

The OBC nominees represent the Lodhi, Pal and Kurmi communities. Among them is Prakash Pal, who heads the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh OBC Morcha and has previously led its Kanpur-Bundelkhand organisational region.  

TWO WOMEN NOMINATED

Former Barabanki MP Priyanka Singh Rawat and 

Shruti Gangwar, daughter of Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar, are the two women on the list.

This is also a hint that a few Governors could also be changed and even dropped in the weeks to come.

Priyanka Singh Rawat, a Uttar Pradesh BJP vice-president and national executive member, defeated Congress veteran P L Punia by around two lakh votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Gangwar, an IIT graduate, chairs the Urban Co-operative Bank in Bareilly and is active in the Bareilly-Baheri region. She described her nomination as an important step towards women-led development and greater participation of women in policymaking.  

Priyanka Singh Rawat 

The Election Commission has fixed October 6 as the last date for filing nominations. Polling will be held on October 16.

The ruling BJP is comfortably positioned to win eight seats and the Samajwadi Party (SP) expected to secure two, both parties could see their candidates elected unopposed if no additional nominees enter. 

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