The BJP on Sunday announced its second list of 155 candidates for Uttar Pradesh, rewarding a good number of turncoats, wards of powerful State leaders, and backward caste candidates.
Also, the list included a generous sprinkling of Dalits and upper caste as well.
The striking feature was inclusion of children of senior party leaders in the list, including Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh from Noida, BJP MP Hukum Singh’s daughter Mriganka Singh from Kairana, senior party leader lalji Tandon’s son Ashutosh Tandon from lucknow East, and MP from Gonda Brijbhushan Saran Singh’s son Prateek Bhushan from Gonda.
Pankaj Singh, a general secretary in the party’s State unit, who had missed out on becoming its nominee in a couple of previous elections and whose name was doing the rounds for a number of constituencies, was finally nominated by the party from Noida seat.
Among prominent leaders who will contest the polls are party’s national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh, and Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who left the Congress to join the BJP last year.
The party has also made an attempt to placate angry Swamy Prasad Maurya, whose son Utkarsh has been given ticket. Slain BJP leader Bhramdutt Dvivedi’s son Sunil Dutt has been given ticket from Farukhabad.
Among the turncoats, the BJP gave ticket to included Nand Kumar Nandi from Allahabad (South) who joined the BJP a few days back, Mayankeshwar Singh from Tiloi and Rajani Tiwari from Shahahabad.
A senior BJP leader said of the candidates 44 per cent belong to Backward caste and 18 per cent Dalits.
With this, the party has so far announced the names of 304 candidates with no Muslim nominee among them. The BJP has also fielded Garima Singh, first wife of Amethi royal and Congress MP Sanjay Singh, from Amethi, according to the official list released on Sunday by its general secretary Arun Singh and Uttar Pradesh unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya at a Press conference.
Announcing the names, party general secretary Arun Singh said the list represents all sections of people, adding, “BJP is confident of forming a Government in UP with a two-third majority”.
Asked about absence of Muslim nominee in the list, he said there was “no suitable” candidate.
Brajesh Pathak, who joined the party after deserting BSP, has been given ticket from lucknow Central.
The election to the 403-member Assembly will take place in seven phases in the State on February 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, March 4 and 8. The party has been pulling out all stops to capture power in UP, which in terms of political implications is more important than all other four poll-bound States.