SP nominates Ramjilal Suman, Jaya Bachchan and Alok Ranjan for Rajya Sabha in UP

Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday nominated Ramjilal Suman, Jaya Bachchan and former IAS officer Alok Ranjan as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. They filed the nomination in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Jaya Bachchan, actor-turned-politician, has been nominated again for the Rajya Sabha seat, while Alok Ranjan is nominated for the first time.

"Suman, Bachchan and Ranjan are SP candidates for Rajya Sabha. They will be filing nominations today," SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said.

4 of 7 BJP Rajya Sabha candidates from UP belong to backward castes

Meanwhile, four of the seven Rajya Sabha candidates from Uttar Pradesh announced by the BJP 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 RPN 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.

Elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in UP

Uttar Pradesh will have the highest number of vacancies of 10 seats, followed by Maharashtra and Bihar (six each), Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal (five each), Karnataka and Gujarat (four each), Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan (three each), and Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Chhattisgarh (one each).

The Election Commission said that the biennial Rajya Sabha polls will be held on February 27 for 56 seats, as the tenure of incumbents including former prime minister Manmohan Singh and BJP president J P Nadda will end in April. The vacancies also include seats held by nine Union ministers including Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

(With PTI inputs)