The BJP announced four candidates for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council polls, including three candidates who were re-nominated and the fourth candidate is bureaucrat turned politician AK Sharma, who joined the BJP on Thursday.

The re-nominated candidates are deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma, State BJP president Swantra Deo Singh and Laxman Acharya. The BJP is yet to announce the remaining 6 candidates. The last date for filing nomination is January 18. There are a total 12 seats that will go to the polls.

BJP sources said a Cabinet reshuffle is likely after the council polls. Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma is likely to be the next chairman of the UP Legislative council as incumbent Ramesh Yadav, who belongs to the Samajwadi Party, is retiring on January 31.

AK Sharma, former IAS officer who is native of Mau district in east UP, is likely to be inducted as a Deputy Chief  Minister. Sharma, a trusted lieutenant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a former IAS officer from Gujarat cadre of 1988 batch.

He joined the BJP on Thursday in presence of State BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma along with other senior office-bearers of the party.

A Bhumihar by caste, Sharma is a postgraduate in political science from Allahabad University and hails from Kajha Khurd village in Muhammadabad Gohna tehsil in Mau district in eastern UP. He joined Modi as the secretary in October 2001 when the former took over as the Gujarat CM. He continued to work with him in the PMO from 2014 onward as well and took over as the MSME secretary in April 2020.

While the top leadership of the State BJP seemed to be tight-lipped over the possible role Sharma would be playing in UP. Those who have followed his stint as a bureaucrat as Modi's lieutenant believe that he would not come to UP just for becoming an MLC.