Patna, May 30 (IANS): In a surprising political move, the BJP on Sunday evening announced Shambhu Sharan Patel and Satish Chandra Dubey as the party candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha poll in Bihar.

With this decision, the saffron party has denied a ticket to veteran leader Gopal Narayan Singh.

However, sources have said that Singh was denied a Rajya Sabha ticket this time due to his age.

Singh is more than 70-years-old which is against the policy of BJP to send a candidate to the Upper House of the Parliament.

The BJP on Sunday evening also announced the names of 16 candidates for the Rajya Sabha election in Bihar where the names of Shambhu Sharan Patel and Satish Chandra Dubey were mentioned in the official notice released by the party.

Following the announcement, Shambhu Sharan Patel went to BJP state headquarters in Patna and touched the feet of senior leader Nagendra ji and took his blessings.

Patel is the state BJP Secretary so his selection has come as a surprise in Bihar.

Satish Chandra Dubey was the sitting BJP Lok Sabha MP in 2019.

According to seat-sharing alliance between the BJP-JD(U), his Lok Sabha seat went to the JD(U) quota.

Thereafter, the BJP selected Dubey as a party candidate for the Rajya Sabha after the death of prominent lawyer-turned-politician Ram Jethmalani of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

As the Rajya Sabha term of Dubey was only for three years, he has been again nominated as the Rajya Sabha candidate by the saffron party.