By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The BJP on Sunday decided to nominate Dinesh Arya, a local Dalit leader from Nainital, for the Rajya Sabha, a move that caught many leaders of the party in Uttarakhand by surprise.
Arya was apparently nominated to the Upper House because of his close links with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, a BJP leader said.
The nomination of Kalpana Saini, a Roorkee-based BJP leader to the Rajya Sabha in 2022 had surprised several senior leaders who were considered contenders for the seat. Saini, then chairperson of the Uttarakhand Other Backward Classes Commission, subsequently elected unopposed.
Arya has largely remained a low-profile organisational figure. His political career has been centred mainly around Nainital and Kumaon rather than state-level electoral politics. He had sought the BJP ticket from Nainital in the 2022 Assembly elections but was not nominated.
He currently holds a minister of state-rank position in the state government, having been appointed vice-chairman of the Uttarakhand State-level Drinking Water Monitoring Council in 2023.
The BJP’s central leadership announced his candidature on Sunday, despite several more prominent names being discussed within the state.
Arya is expected to have a smooth passage to the Rajya Sabha given the BJP’s strength in the Uttarakhand Assembly.
His nomination therefore reinforces a recurring feature of the BJP’s Rajya Sabha choices from the state: the central leadership can spring a surprise by elevating relatively low-profile party workers rather than opting for the most visible political faces.