BJP names former deputy CM Dinesh Sharma as its Rajya Sabha candidate from UP

September 5 is the last date for nominations and the by-election is scheduled for September 15. Sharma’s election is near certain as the BJP has a strong majority in the state assembly.

Like Dubey, Sharma is also a Brahmin and by naming him as the candidate, the BJP has tried to keep the upper caste community in good humour ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Sharma was elected as a member of the UP Legislative Council for the first time in 2017, a few days after he was inducted in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet as deputy CM. He got the second term in 2021. His current term expires in January 2027. His election to the Rajya Sabha will create a vacancy in the Legislative Council.

Sharma was one of the two deputy CMs in the first tenure of the Yogi Adityanath government between 2017 and 2022 in which he held various portfolios, including secondary and higher education, science and technology.

Inducted into the cabinet as a Brahmin face to balance the caste equations, he was dropped during the second term of the Adityanath cabinet in 2022. In his place, the BJP had inducted Brajesh Pathak, also a Brahmin, as deputy CM.

After losing the cabinet berth, Sharma did not hold any post in the party but sources said he kept working to consolidate Brahmin votes in favour of BJP.

A former BJP national vice-president, Sharma also worked as the in-charge of the party’s Gujarat unit in the past besides being the party’s national in-charge for the membership drive in 2014-15. Also, he was elected mayor of Lucknow from 2006 onwards.