Lucknow, Oct. 6 -- A day before the last day for filing nominations for 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party MLA and senior leader Ravidas Mehrotra on Monday intensified the suspense by claiming the party is gearing up to nominate a third candidate. The development comes even as the BJP named eight candidates on Monday. Though the SP has made no official announcement regarding the third candidate yet, the latest claim from a senior party leader could set the ball rolling for a direct contest with the BJP. The move injects further intrigue into the biennial elections, which precede the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls due early next year. Mehrotra claimed the party will field its third Rajya Sabha candidate on Tuesday, the last day for filing nominations. The nomination is scheduled for 11am at the Vidhan Bhavan. Signatures of 10 MLAs were obtained on Monday to serve as proposers, and Mehrotra stated that he too has signed as a proposer. The candidate's name will be announced soon, he added. The statement comes after the SP earlier got nominations filed for two candidates - party general secretary and veteran leader Ram Gopal Yadav, who is seeking a sixth term in the Upper House, and Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani, a senior corporate executive associated with Reliance Industries Limited. The pair filed their papers on September 30 in the presence of party president Akhilesh Yadav. In his affidavit, Nathwani declared family assets exceeding Rs.370 crore and stated he has no pending criminal cases. With the SP now set to field a third candidate, a contest is likely for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh, and voting is scheduled for October 16 if required after the nomination process. Scrutiny of nominations will be done on October 7 and October 9 is the withdrawal deadline. In the numbers game for the 10 seats, the UP assembly's effective strength stands at 397 members. Under the single transferable vote system, a candidate needs roughly 37 first-preference votes to win a seat. The BJP-led NDA, with the BJP's roughly 255 MLAs plus allies commanding a combined strength in the high 280s to around 290-plus, is positioned to comfortably secure seven seats and potentially push for an eighth with additional support. The SP, with about 100-101 MLAs plus limited Congress support, has the numbers for two seats but would need additional votes to elect a third candidate....