RPN Singh, Sudhanshu Trivedi in BJP’s list for Rajya Sabha polls; party relies on fresh faces

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Sunday announced a list of 14 candidates from various states for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, fielding former Union minister RPN Singh and party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi from Uttar Pradesh.
Notably, none of the Union ministers, whose terms are coming to an end, were named in the list amid a strong possibility that many of them will contest the Lok Sabha polls.
In Uttar Pradesh, the party has fielded six new faces for seven seats, including RPN Singh, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangita Balwant, and Navin Jain. Sudhanshu Trivedi, the party spokesperson, is the only candidate who has been given a second term for the Upper House.
Among the new faces in the BJP list is former Union minister RPN Singh, who joined BJP from Congress ahead of the 2022 assembly elections in UP. Singh belongs to Padrauna and is a Kurmi by caste.
Chaudhary Tejveer Singh belongs to Mathura and is a former Lok Sabha member. His presence in the Upper House will strengthen the BJP’s base in western Uttar Pradesh, political analysts said.
Amarpal Maurya is the party’s state secretary and is known to be active in organisational matters. Sadhna Singh belongs to Gorakhpur and is the daughter-in-law of former chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh. Her husband Fateh Bahadur Singh is a BJP MLA from Campierganj and she is a former district panchayat president.
Navin Jain is a former mayor of Agra and known for being politically active. Sangita Balwant belongs to the Bind community and she lost the 2022 assembly elections.
Bihar has six vacancies and both the ruling NDA and the opposition are likely to win three seats each, going by their current strengths. The JD(U), a BJP ally, is likely to name its candidate for one seat. BJP is fielding Dr Dharmsheela Gupta and Dr Bhim Singh from the state.
In Chhattisgarh, BJP has fielded Raja Devendra Pratap Singh. Singh, 49, hails from a prestigious lineage and is the son of the grandson of Maharaja Chakradhar Singh. Notably, the renowned cultural event “Chakradhar Samaroh” is organized annually in Raigarh in honor of Maharaja Chakradhar Singh.
In Haryana, BJP has picked Subhash Barala, the former chief of the party in the state, as its candidate for the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, the party has fielded Narayana Krishanasa Bhandage from Karnataka.
The party has picked Mahendra Bhatt from Uttarakhand and Samik Bhattacharya from Karnataka for the elections to the upper house.

The elections for 56 seats in the Rajya Sabha are set to take place on February 27.
Meanwhile, a total of 58 Rajya Sabha members – including eight central ministers, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national President JP Nadda – will retire by the first week of May this year.
Mansukh Mandaviya, Bhupender Yadav, Parshottam Rupala, Dharmendra Pradhan, V Murleedharan, Narayan Rane, Rajeev Chandrashekhar and Ashwini Vaishnaw are the eight ministers who will retire by April 2-3, along with 47 other MPs, including Manmohan Singh and Nadda.
Among those retiring are 28 MPs from the BJP, 11 from Congress, four from Trinamool Congress, four from Bharat Rashtra Samithi, two each from Biju Janata Dal, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United), and one each from YSRCP, Shiv Sena, NCP, Telugu Desam Party, and Sikkim Democratic Front.
Samajwadi Party’s Jaya Bachchan, BJP’s Anil Baluni and Prakash Javadekar, and BJD’s Amar Patnaik are among those leaders retiring from the Rajya Sabha.
The retirement of these MPs and the outcome of the upcoming general elections will impact the representation each party will have in the Upper House during the next Lok Sabha term.
Presently, the BJP has 93 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, 30 MPs in Congress, 13 in the Trinamool Congress, and six nominated members, among others, in a house of 239 with six vacancies.
(With inputs from agencies)