Lucknow, Feb 11 (PTI) Four of the seven Rajya Sabha candidates from Uttar Pradesh announced by the BJP on Sunday belong to backward castes, as the party seeks to reach out various communities ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP announced the candidature of former Union minister R P N Singh (belonging to Sainthwar-Kurmi), former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh (Jat), state party general secretary Amarpal Maurya (Koeri) and former state minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind).
It also fielded party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain, belonging to Brahmin, Kshatriya and Jain communities, respectively.
Fifty-nine-year-old R P N Singh, who left the Congress to join the BJP before the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, belongs to the Sainthwar Royal family of Kushinagar and is considered a key leader of his community in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
In 2009, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kushinagar and served as the Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways from 2009 to 2011. He was the Union Minister of State for Home in the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government till October 2012.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he lost to the BJP candidate in Kushinagar.
He was also elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly from Padrauna in 1996, 2002 and 2007.
The BJP has renominated its national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi from the state.
Trivedi was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in October 2019.
The party’s state general secretary Amarpal Maurya is considered a prominent leader from the Koeri community.
Maurya, who has been long associated with the organisation, is considered close to Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, who comes from the Jat community, is a former MP from Mathura and is currently active in the cooperative movement.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mathura in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Sangeeta Balwant was the Minister of State for Cooperation in the first Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh. In the 2022 assembly elections, she was defeated from the Ghazipur Sadar seat by 1,600 votes.
Sadhna Singh is a former MLA from Chandauli district.
Naveen Jain is a former mayor of Agra Municipal Corporation.
The Rajya Sabha elections are scheduled to be held on February 27.
The Lok Sabha polls are due in April-May. PTI AR ABN SMN
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