The ruling BJP sprang a surprise on Monday by fielding eight newcomers for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh and dropping all outgoing members, including Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma.The Rajya Sabha term of Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Puri (74), the only Sikh face in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers, ends on November 25.Verma is a Minister of State for Consumer Affairs.Puri’s omission has put his future in the Union Cabinet under a cloud, although he can continue as a minister for six months after ceasing to be an MP and could be re-elected to Parliament from another state during that period.As a senior Sikh leader, Puri remains important in the context of the Punjab Assembly elections due in February 2027, and could continue in the Union Cabinet until the polls if Prime Minister Narendra Modi decides so.As for the Rajya Sabha poll from UP, none of the outgoing MPs of the BJP have been renominated. Prominent names that had figured in the UP BJP panel of potential nominees such as national general secretary Smriti Irani and poet Kumar Vishwas were also missing.Among the outgoing BJP MPs dropped are Puri, Verma, Brijlal, former BJP general secretary Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, son of former PM Chandrashekhar Neeraj Shekhar and Seema Dwivedi.Among newcomers in today’s list are grassroots leaders of the BJP from OBC, Scheduled Caste and upper caste segments and different regions of the state.The selections have been made keeping the 2027 UP Assembly polls in mind and to counter Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA (pichhda, Dalit and alpsankhyak) push.What is needed to winThere are 10 seats up for grabs in a 403-member Assembly. As per calculations, 37 first-preference votes are needed to win one RS seat. That means 74 votes are needed for two seats, 259 for seven and 296 for eight. The BJP-led NDA has an effective strength of 294 MLAs, enough to secure seven seats, but two votes short of the number needed to guarantee an eighth. The SP and Congress have 102 MLAs, enough for two seats, which require 74 votes, but nine short of the 111 needed for a third.The freshers fielded for the Rajya Sabha include two prominent OBCs — three-term MLA from Bareilly’s Aonla and UP Animal Husbandry Minister Dharampal Singh, who represents OBC Lodhs, and Shruti Gangwar, daughter of Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar.Brahmin leaders in the list are Radha Kant Ojha, a two-time president of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association, and Kanpur-based Gopikrishna Pandey known for his long RSS association.Among SCs fielded are Priyanka Singh Rawat, who represents the Pasi Dalit, and Vidya Sagar Sonkar, who was SC Morcha head of UP BJP.New RS nominee Prakash Pal is a senior RSS pracharak and former state general secretary in UP BJP organisation. Ram Prakash Singh Chauhan represents the dominant Rajputs.Elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats from UP will take place on October 16 with eight outgoing MPs from BJP and one each from SP (Ram Gopal Yadav) and BSP (Ramji Gautam). The BSP faces the prospect of a Parliament washout with Gautam retiring and the party lacking the numbers to send a nominee to the RS.The SP has renominated Yadav and fielded Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani, Reliance Industries group president, in the polls.It remains to be seen if the BJP will field an 11th candidate to queer the pitch for the opposition in UP.