In preparation for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections scheduled on February 27, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has unveiled its list of 14 candidates. The votes for the 56 seats spread across 15 states will be counted on the same day.

One prominent name on the list is RPN Singh, a former Congress leader who crossed over to the BJP in 2022. Singh has been nominated from Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest number of vacancies with 10 seats. Other BJP nominees from the state include Sudhanshu Trivedi, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangita Balwant, and Navin Jain. Notably, none of the nine outgoing BJP MPs from Uttar Pradesh, including Anil Jain, Anil Agrawal, and G V L Narasimha Rao, have been renominated.

The candidates from Uttar Pradesh reflect a fine balance of castes, with representation from Kurmi, Brahmin, Nishad, Jain, Rajput, Maurya, and Jat communities. However, none of the Union ministers, whose terms are coming to an end, have been named in this list, as there is speculation that many of them will be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

In Bihar, where the BJP is in alliance with Nitish Kumar's JDU, the party has named Dharmsheela Gupta and Bhim Singh as its nominees for the six available seats. Notably, Sushil Kumar Modi's name is missing from the list, but he congratulated the two Bihar leaders on their nominations.

In Chhattisgarh, Raja Devendra Pratap Singh, from the erstwhile Gond royal family, has been nominated by the BJP to replace Saroj Pandey. The party has chosen its former state chief, Subhash Barala, a Jat, as its candidate in Haryana, and Narayana Krishanasa Bhandage in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, the BJP is yet to announce its candidates from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Union ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala from Gujarat, Dharmendra Pradhan and L. Murugan from Madhya Pradesh, and Narayan Rane from Maharashtra are among those retiring from the Rajya Sabha.

A total of 58 Rajya Sabha members are set to retire by the first week of May, including eight Central Ministers, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and BJP chief JP Nadda. Among the retiring members, 28 belong to the BJP, 11 to Congress, four to Trinamool Congress, four to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, two each to 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.