Dy CM Maurya to contest from Sirathu; list of 105 announced
The BJP on Saturday announced that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will contest from his home constituency Gorakhpur and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu in Pragraj while announcing 105 of 113 seats for the first two phases of the high stake Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
The BJP has repeated 63 sitting MLAs and effected changes in 20 seats, changing sitting MLAs in the list of two (of seven phases) initial phases of polls falling on February 10 and February 14. Of the candidates whose names were announced on Sunday, 44 are from OBC and 19 from Scheduled Caste. The party has fielded ten women candidates.
In a bid to offset the impact of rebellion by OBC leaders like Swami Prasad Maurya, the party has also fielded OBC and SC candidates from seats that are not reserved for these communities.
The names of Yogi and Maurya have been announced though their election is not scheduled in the first two phases. BJP election-in-charge UP Dharmendra Pradhan said, “Yogi happily accepted party’s decision for making him candidate from Gorakhpur.”
Gorakhpur is the Chief Minister’s stronghold and has voted him to the Lok Sabha for five straight terms. Polling for the Gorakhpur (urban) seat will be held on March 3 - the sixth and penultimate phase. Maurya is to contest from Sirathu seat in Prayagraj district.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took a jibe at Yogi minutes after the BJP announced him as the party candidate from his stronghold in Gorakhpur. “Earlier they used to sometime say ‘he will fight from Ayodhya’ or ‘he will fight from Mathura’ or ‘he will contest from Prayagraj and Deoband ‘... now see... I like that the BJP has already sent Yogi to Gorakhpur,” he said.
Yogi should stay there... there is no need for him to come from there, he said.
Former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya, who had resigned from the constitutional post and soon thereafter appointed party vice-president, will be contesting from Agra rural.
Among others Pankaj Singh, son of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and sitting MLA will again be a candidate from Noida as would be the senior State Power Minister Srikant Sharma from Mathura.
The BJP has also fielded former UP Chief Minister and backward class key Lodh leader Kalyan Singh’s grandson Sandeep Singh from Aturauli seat.
Suresh Raina and Sangeet Som- controversial BJP leaders of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots- have also been nominated as Assembly candidates from west UP.
“We are releasing list of candidates on 57/58 seats in the first phase and 48/55 in the second phase,” said Pradhan while announcing the list of candidates at a joint Press conference with party general secretary Arun Singh.
On the question of recent defections from the party, he said, “BJP sarvsamaji party hain, Hamare karvan main log ate jate rahtain hain..Hamra mudda Garib Kalyan hain...”.
He said a few seats unannounced for the first two phases are meant to be considered for allies like Aapna Dal and Nishad party.
More than 60 per cent of the names announced in the two lists are from the OBC and SC categories. 44 seats are for OBC candidates and 19 seats for SC.
“Changes in 20 seats is to give place to new faces, youth, women, doctors..”, said Pradhan who said a renowned orthopedics Raghuvendra Sharma has been nominated as a candidate for UP polls.
He said even an SC candidate has been fielded from a general seat
As against leaders deserting the party, the BJP UP poll-in-charge said many new leaders would be joining the party within a day or two.