Reposing faith in the sitting legislators, Bharatiya Janata Party released another list of 91 candidates for the upcoming UP assembly elections on Friday, fielding 13 ministers and repeating its sitting MLA in Ayodhya.
In this list majority of the names are for those constituencies where elections will be held in the fifth and sixth phases but names of candidates from different constituencies for Lucknow, where elections will be held in the fourth phase, are still under wraps. Similarly, the future of UP Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit hangs in balance as his name is also not in the list.
The party dropped Co-operative Affairs Minister Mukut Bihari Verma but gave ticket to his son Gaurav, who will be contesting from Kaiserganj seat in Bahraich.
Major seat holders are Sidharth Nath Singh from Allahabad West, chief minister’s media advisor Shalabh Mani Tripathi from Deoria Sadar seat, Nand Gopal Nandi from Prayagraj South, Amit Chauhan from Bikapur in Ayodhya and Ramchandra Yadav from Rudauli.
Besides, the BJP has allotted tickets to Anupama Jaiswal from Bahraich, Akhilesh Mishra from Azamgarh Sadar, Aarti Tiwari from Gosaiganj and Prateek Bhushan Singh from Gonda. The party has fielded Sinduja Mishra against Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya in Kunda and despite opposition it has given ticket to Rajesh Gautam from Kadipur (reserved) seat in Sultanpur.
The party has, however, denied ticket to sitting MLA from Haidergarh, Baijnath Rawat, and has instead fielded Dinesh Rawat from there. The party has fielded new faces from Barabanki Sadar (Arvind Maurya) and Sharad Awasthi from Ramnagar.
In Azamgarh, which is considered a stronghold of Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party, the BJP has declared candidates for nine out of 10 constituencies. The party has fielded Satyendra Rai from Gopalpur, Akhilesh Mishra from Azamgarh, Manoj Yadav from Nizamabad, Krishna Murari Vishwakarma from Didarganj, former MP Neelam Sonkar from Lalganj, and Manju Saroj from Mehnagar.
Manju Saroj was the candidate of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party in 2017 but lost the election. She is now the face of the BJP. The BJP has not yet fielded anyone from Phulpur-Powai where Samajwadi Party has given ticket to Ramakant Yadav, father of BJP MLA Arun Kant.
Among the ministers who got the nod are: Suresh Pasi from Jagdishpur (Sultanpur), Rajendra Pratap Singh Moti from Pratapgarh, Sidharth Nath Singh from Allahabad West, Nand Gopal Nandi from Allahabad South, Ramapati Shastri from Mankapur (Gonda) , Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh from Bansi in Siddharthnagar, Satish Dwivedi from Etwa (Siddharthnagar), Jai Prakash Nishad from Rudrapur (Deoria), Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi from Pathardeva (Deoria) and Upendra Tiwari from Phephna (Ballia).
List of candidates
Nirmal Verma (Biswan), Mayankeshwar Singh (Tiloi), Ashok Kori ( Salon-SC), Dhirendra Pratap Singh (Sereni), Suresh Kumar Pasi (Jagdishpur-SC), Rajesh Gautan (Kadipur-SC), Rajesh Sachan (Bhognipur), Ramkesh Nishad (Tindwari), Nagesh Pratap Singh 'Chhote Sarkar' (Rampur Khas), Keshav Paasi (Babaganj-SC), Sindhuja Mishra (Kunda), Rajendra Pratap Singh (Patti), Lal Bahadur (Manjhanpur-SC), Guru Prasad Maurya (Phaphamau), Praveen Kumar Patel (Phulpur), Neelam Karwaria (Meja), Siddharthnath Singh (Allahabad West), Nand Kumar Gupta 'Nandi' (Allahabad South), Aarti Kol (Koraon), Sakendra Pratap Verma(Kursi), Sharad Awasthi (Ramnagar), Arvind Maurya (Barabanki), Amrish Rawat (Zaidpur-SC), Satish Chandra Sharma (Dariyabad), Ramchandra Yadav (Rudauli), Dinesh Rawat (Haidergarh-SC), Baba Gorakhnath (Milkipur), Amit Singh Chauhan (Bikapur), Ved Prakash Gupta (Ayodhya), Aarti Tiwari (Gosaiganj), Subhash Rai (Jalalpur), Saroj Sonkar (Balha), Arun Veer Singh (Matera), Sureshwar Singh (Mahsi), Anupama Jaiswal (Bahraich), Subhash Tripathi (Payagpur), Gaurav Verma (Kaiserganj), Padmasen Chaudhry (Bhinga), Ramferan Pandey (Sravasti), Kailash Nath Shukla (Tulsipur), Shailesh Kumar Singh (Gasdi), Ram Pratap 'Shashikant Verma' (Utraula), Paltu Ram (Balrampur), Vinay Kumar Dwivedi (Mehnoun), Prateek Bhushan Singh (Gonda), Bhuwan Singh (Katra Bazar), Ajay Kumar Singh (Karnailganj), Prem Narayan Pandey (Tarabganj), Ramapati Shastri (Mankapur), Prabhat Kumar Verma (Gaura), Shyamdhani Rahi (Kapilvastu), Jai Pratap Singh (Bansi), Satish Chandra Dwivedi (Etwa), Raghvendra Pratap Singh (Dumariaganj), Ajay Kumar Singh (Haraiya), Chandra Prakash Shukla (Kaptanganj), Dayaram Chaudhry (Basti Sadar), Ravi Kumar Sonkar (Mahadeva), Ankur Raj Tiwari (Khalilabad), Ganesh Chandra Chauhan (Dhanghata), Bajrang Bahadur Singh (Farenda), Gyanendra Singh (Paniyara), Fateh Bahadur Singh (Campiarganj), Mahendra Pal Singh (Pipraich), Pradeep Shukla (Sahjanwa), Shriram Chauhan (Khajni ), Vimlesh Paswan (Bansgaon), Rajesh Tripathi (Chillupar), Surendra Kushwaha (Fazilnagar), PN Pathak (Kushinagar), Mohan Verma (Hata), Jai Prakash Nishad (Rudrapur), Shalabh Mani Tripathi (Deoria), Surya Pratap Sahi (Pathardeva), Surendra Chaurasia (Rampur khas), Deepak Mishra (Barhaj), Satyendra Rai (Gopalpur), Akhilesh Mishra 'Guddu' (Azamgarh), Manoj Yadav (Nizamabad), Dr Krishna Murari Vishwakarma (Didarnagar), Neelan Sonkar (Lalganj), Manju Saroj (Mohnagar), Chattu Ram (Belthara Road), Babban Rajbhar (Rasra), Sandy Yadav (Sikanderpur), Upendra Tiwari (Phephna), Ramesh Chandra Mishra (Badlapur), Girish Chandra Yadav (Jaunpur), Dr Harendra Prasad Singh (Zafarabad), Dinesh Choudhary (Kerakat ) and Sunita Parikshit Singh (Zamania).