The BJP on Monday named eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, including state minister Dharam Pal Singh.
The other nominees are Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar, the party said.
The names were cleared by the BJP Central Election Committee.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, whose Rajya Sabha term is among those ending, did not figure in the list.
BJP sources said the selection was made keeping in mind the social, regional and caste equations in the state. The eight nominees include three upper-caste candidates, three from Other Backward Classes and two from Scheduled Castes. Two of the candidates are women.
Elections to 12 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal will be held on October 16. Uttar Pradesh accounts for 10 seats, while Uttarakhand has one seat and West Bengal will see a bypoll for another.
The terms of the sitting members from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand end on November 25.
Among the Uttar Pradesh members retiring are BJP leaders Puri, Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal, B L Verma and Seema Dwivedi, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP's Ramji Gautam.
Another Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh has been vacant since September 11 following the resignation of former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma. His resignation took effect after he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
(With inputs from PTI)