Who is Dhanraj Nathwani and why his Rajya Sabha candidature matters

When Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav promised a ‘surprise candidate’ for the Rajya Sabha polls, few had expected it to come from Jamnagar in Gujarat. Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani, who filed his nomination as an SP candidate from Uttar Pradesh alongside party veteran Ram Gopal Yadav, serves as a board member of Reliance Corporate IT Park Ltd. He drives critical manufacturing and business verticals of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and is also president of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA).The SP is thought to have the numbers for two of Uttar Pradesh’s 10 Rajya Sabha seats, which are going to polls on October 16. So Nathwani’s election seems all but certain.The nomination puts two things side by side. Dhanraj’s father, Parimal Nathwani, is Reliance's director of corporate affairs. He returned to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand in June as an NDA-backed Independent. If both are seated, a family at the core of India's largest conglomerate will be present on both sides of the Upper House of Parliament. The father will sit with the ruling bloc, the son with its main rival in Uttar Pradesh, northern India's most consequential state electorally.Dhanraj Nathwani oversees Reliance's Jamnagar and Vadodara manufacturing divisions and its Jio business in Gujarat. At the GCA, he succeeded Amit Shah in 2022, who had succeeded Narendra Modi (2009-2014). Nathwani oversaw the completion of the Narendra Modi Stadium, the centrepiece of the government’s pitch to project and convert Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar into a global sporting destination. Nathwani is also vice-chairman of the Dwarkadhish Temple committee and Nathdwara Temple Board. He is associated with the Gujarat State Board for Wildlife and is a member of the Board of Governors of Pandit Deendayal Energy University in Gandhinagar, while also being associated with the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute.Nathwani is on the Gujarat government’s GEER Foundation board and a state committee on technical education. Non-official members of these bodies are nominated by the BJP-run state government. Should Nathwani win his Rajya Sabha contest, will an SP MP get to keep those positions?Nathwani expressed “heartfelt gratitude” towards Akhilesh for the Rajya Sabha opportunity and termed it as a “new phase of my public life”.Akhilesh called the pick “new generation, new thinking” and an overture to industry. Reliance has said nothing, and it is unclear if the Nathwanis are making a family bet on their corporate standing.Interestingly, father Parimal spent a decade in Jharkhand before, calling it his “karmabhoomi”. Dhanraj, on the contrary, has no stated link to Uttar Pradesh and has not said what he plans to do there. How active will he get in the politics of SP, a party largely confined to Uttar Pradesh?Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are due in early 2027. The Nathwanis’ ties to the BJP's top leadership are long and public. But sources in the SP do not see this as a catalyst to Akhilesh warming up to the NDA, insisting that Dhanraj is his own person and makes his own choices. Any speculation in that direction was quelled when Akhilesh was seen accompanying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the street protests held to demand the ouster of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.The SP's pitch rests on its PDA coalition of “Pichhda, Dalits, Alpsankhyak”. It is not obvious where a Reliance executive fits in it. However, the socialist party has been here before. Anil Ambani entered the Rajya Sabha as an independent candidate backed by the SP in 2004 and resigned two years later. That was during the Amar Singh era of corporate closeness, which ended with Singh's expulsion from the party.Whether Delhi sees this as a hedge by one of India's leading corporate houses, a breach of trust by the Nathwanis or a strategic arrangement will show in how the BJP responds to Dhanraj Nathwani as assembly poll campaigning gets underway in Uttar Pradesh in the following months.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends