The BJP on Friday announced its third list of 85 candidates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections that includes Aditi Singh — who recently quit the Congress — fielded from Rae Bareli.
The BJP has also given ticket to Asim Arun, who recently resigned from the IPS, in its third list of candidates.
The list also includes incumbent MLA Hariom Yadav, a relative of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Hariom Yadav had quit the Opposition party recently and crossed over to the BJP .
The BJP has named both Aditi Singh and Yadav from their current seats of Rae Bareli and Sirsaganj respectively, while Arun, a Dalit, will contest from Kannauj, a reserved seat.
The Rae Bareli Assembly seat is part of the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency which is represented by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Uttar Pradesh Assembly Deputy Speaker Nitin Aggarwal, who had also left the SP to join the BJP, will fight from Hardoi.
Other key candidates include former BSP leader Ramveer Upadhyay from Sadabad, Archna Pandey from Chhibramau, and Satish Mahana from Mahrajpur.
Riya Shakya, daughter of Bidhuna MLA Vinay Shakya who joined the SP, has also got a ticket to contest from her father’s seat.
With the fresh list of candidates, which includes 15 women, the total number of names announced by the party for the seven-phase election to the 403-member assembly has reached 195.
Last week, the BJP had released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. It was announced that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will contest the polls from the Gorakhpur seat and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu
Uttar Pradesh elections for the 403 Assembly constituencies are slated to be held in seven phases starting from February 10. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.