2024 Lok Sabha polls: BJP’s new list out, pits Manoj Sinha aide against Afzal Ansari in Ghazipur
Former PM Chandra Shekhar’s son fielded from Ballia, Keshari Nath Tripathi’s son to contest from Allahabad, U.P. minister Jaiveer Singh to take on Dimple in Mainpuri; suspense on Kaiserganj and Rae Bareli continues
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday named Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s close aide Paras Nath Rai as its candidate against gangster-turned-politician the late Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari in Ghazipur.
At the same time, the party kept up the suspense on Kaiserganj, where former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is a five-term MP. It also held back declaration of its candidate for the Congress bastion Rae Bareli from where there is speculation about a member of the Gandhi family contesting.
Besides Ghazipur, the BJP named candidates for six other Uttar Pradesh seats — Allahabad, Mainpuri, Ballia, Phulpur, Macchlishahr and Kaushambi — in its third list for the state, replacing three sitting MPs.
By fielding Rai from Ghazipur, the BJP has ended speculation that Sinha would resign to contest the seat. Sinha was elected from Ghazipur in 1996, 1999 and 2014 but lost in 2019.
The Ghazipur seat is in the spotlight following the Samajwadi Party’s decision to field Afzal Ansari, the sitting Bahujan Samaj Party MP, on the SP symbol.
The BJP also replaced its sitting Allahabad MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi with Neeraj Tripathi, the son of former West Bengal governor the late Keshari Nath Tripathi. Rita Bahuguna Joshi later visited the residence of Neeraj Tripathi and congratulated him. She said that she respects the decision taken by the party high command.
For the SP citadel of Mainpuri, the BJP has named Uttar Pradesh minister Jaiveer Singh, to challenge Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav, the sitting MP. Jaiveer Singh is a former SP leader. In 2019, the BJP had fielded Prem Singh Shakya who lost to SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav by about 94,000 votes.
In east U.P’s Ballia, the BJP dropped its sitting MP Virendra Mast, replacing him with Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar. Neeraj Shekhar had a long stint with the SP before he joined the BJP.
For the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat, the BJP has named local lawmaker Pravin Patel as its candidate, replacing the sitting MP Keshari Devi Patel.
The BJP retained the sitting MPs for Kaushambi and Macchlishahr – Vinod Sonkar and BP Saroj, respectively.
The BJP has so far named candidates on 70 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, replacing sitting MPs on 18 seats.
It has left the Ghosi Lok Sabha seat for its ally the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), and the Baghpat and Bijnor Lok Sabha seats in west Uttar Pradesh for the Rashtriya Lok Dal. It is also likely to allot two seats to the Apna Dal (Sonelal) and at least one seat to Nishad party, its other OBC allies in Uttar Pradesh.
Paras Nath Rai, the BJP’s Ghazipur candidate, owns several colleges in many parts of east U.P. and has been a former coordinator of Manoj Sinha’s elections.
Much focus would be on Ghazipur from where Afzal Ansari won as a joint candidate of BSP-SP alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, defeating three-term MP and former Union minister Manoj Sinha, a civil engineer by profession, in a close contest.
Afzal Ansari subsequently joined the Samajwadi Party, whose chief Akhilesh Yadav had visited Ghazipur’s Mohammadabad on April 7, to offer condolences on the demise of Mukhtar Ansari in Banda on March 28.
Talking to newspersons recently, Afzal Ansari had claimed that there was a wave against BJP in east U.P. and the ruling party would face a crushing defeat.
Meanwhile, asked about the BJP fielding former SP leader and UP minister Jaiveer Singh against her from Mainpuri, Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav said: “It’s good that the BJP has finally named its candidate, a minister in the U.P. government. They would have fielded someone anyway but irrespective of our opponent, the Samajwadi Party is fully prepared.”
In December 2022, Dimple Yadav had won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha by-poll after SP founder and sitting MP Mulayam Singh Yadav’s demise. After Dimple’s win, Akhilesh Yadav had claimed that Jaiveer Singh, the sitting BJP lawmaker from the Mainpuri assembly constituency, had helped the SP’s win. The BJP’s decision to now name Jaiveer as a Lok Sabha candidate against Dimple thus has its own meaning, BJP leaders said. On his part, Jaiveer exuded confidence on the BJP’s ability to open its account in Mainpuri, from where it has never won before.