Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Neha Shukla | TNN

BJP’s RS candidates from UP file nominations in Yogi Adityanath’s presence; set to be elected unopposed

LUCKNOW: In the presence of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, eight BJP candidates filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday in Lucknow.

The deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak were also present.

In selecting the candidates for the Rajya Sabha, the party has kept in consideration the caste, regional balance as well as candidates’ loyalty and dedication to the party. Four candidates nominated are from the backward community and one from the Dalit community besides two women candidates. May 31 was the last date for filing nominations for 11 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh. The elections to 57 seats of the Rajya Sabha will take place on June 10.

Those who filed the nominations on Tuesday included veterans like former UP BJP chief Dr Laxmikant Bajpai, four-time party MLA from Gorakhpur Urban and a paediatrician by profession, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, BJP's OBC Morcha national president Dr K Laxman, former Shahjahanpur MP Mithilesh Kumar who has also been an independent MLA from Powayan seat of Shahjahanpur, chairman of State Backward Classes Finance Development Corporation (which is a ministerial rank) Baburam Nishad, Surendra Nagar, who is already a Rajya Sabha MP and whose term is ending on July 4, and women candidates Darshana Singh and Sangeeta Yadav.

Singh is the national vice-president of BJP Mahila Morcha and has also been the UP state president of Mahila Morcha while Yadav is the former party MLA from the Chaurichaura seat of Gorakhpur. She was not given the ticket in the 2022 elections as the seat went to the BJP ally, Nishad Party. Yadav comes from a backward community and has helmed the party's backward wing in the state. She has worked with the party since 2013 and represents Purvanchal.

Laxmikant Bajpai’s association with the party dates back to the Jan Sangh days. It was during his term as the state president of the party in UP in 2014 that BJP swept the Lok Sabha elections in UP and won 75 of the 80 seats. He has also been an MLA and a former minister from Meerut Sadar seat four times. Though Bajpai lost from Meerut in the 2017 assembly elections he continued to work in the background. It was a few months before the 2022 assembly elections in the state that the party’s state unit brought him back to the fore and made him in-charge of the party’s joining committee which was instrumental in making many political leaders, who crossed over from the other parties, join BJP. Besides, he is one of the prominent Brahmin leaders of the party from western UP.

Agarwal, on the other hand, is also a long associate and a committed worker of the party in UP. He is known to have enjoyed the backing of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who brought him into politics. He stepped aside without a fuss when it was decided that Yogi Adityanath will contest from Gorakhpur Urban in the 2022 elections, the seat from where Agarwal had won four consecutive terms on a BJP ticket. He has been winning the seat since 2002. The first election that he contested was on a Hindu Mahasabha ticket.

Surender Singh Nagar, another Rajya Sabha candidate from BJP, comes from the Gurjar community that has a strong presence in western UP. Baburam Nishad represents one of the prominent communities from Purvanchal, Nishads, and Mithilesh Kumar enjoys prominence as a Dalit leader in western UP. Kumar was the Samajwadi Party MP from Shahjahanpur in 2009. He has been an independent MLA from Powayan seat of Shahjahanpur as well. He joined BJP in 2019 and was made the vice president of the UP SC/ST Commission in 2021.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.