BJP’s ‘cadre’ candidates file nominations in ministers’ presence
BJP candidates file nomination papers for the first phase of civic polls in Uttar Pradesh. The ruling party has fielded its cadre this time over ?parachute candidates?.
Confident of their winning chances, all Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates, including the 10 mayor hopefuls, for the first phase of the civic polls filed their nomination papers on Monday. Close to 4.23 crore people will be electing their civic representatives on May 4 and 11.
Monday was the last date for filing of nominations for seats that go to polls in the first phase. The BJP, which has traditionally done well in civic polls, put on a big show by tasking its ministers and senior party functionaries to escort the civic poll picks.
The ruling party has fielded its cadre this time over ‘parachute candidates’ -- the term given to those who get picked over the party workers due to ‘extraneous’ considerations.
Some BJP leaders felt that this move was to keep the party cadre happy ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
BJP’s Lucknow mayor candidate Sushma Kharkwal, the wife of a retired army personnel and an old party hand, filed her nomination in the presence of senior party leaders. On the day, Kharkwal, a Brahmin from Uttarakhand, also met Aparna Bisht Yadav (daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party founder late Mulayam Singh Yadav) who joined the BJP in the 2022 state assembly polls, and the outgoing mayor Sanyukta Bhatia at a hospital where she was admitted.
“I am a party loyalist and come from an average family background. My husband served in the army at a lower position and all I can say is, if elected, I will do my best to make an impression,” she added.
Present during Kharkwal’s nomination filing were senior ministers in the Yogi 2.0 government, including deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak, finance minister Suresh Khanna and former deputy CM Dinesh Sharma
State’s agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi and the party’s state vice-president Neelam Sonkar assisted Gorakhpur mayor hopeful Dr Manglesh Srivastava, a well-known doctor and social worker, during his document submission.
In Prayagraj, Jal shakti minister Swatantra Dev and senior party functionary Mahesh Chandra Srivastava were present when mayoral candidate Umesh Chandra Ganesh Kesarwani, the party’s Prayagraj unit chief, filed his papers.
State’s urban development minister Arvind Kumar Sharma and U.P. BJP secretary Anjula Mahaur were present for the nomination filing of Agra mayoral candidate Hemlata Diwaker, a former Dalit lawmaker. Tourism minister Jaivir Singh and state general secretary Govind Narayan Shukla were in Varanasi where mayoral candidate Ashok Tiwari, the party’s regional secretary in Kashi, submitted his papers.
During the nomination filling of the party’s mayoral candidate in Mathura-Vrindavan Vinod Agarwal, the BJP’s city chief, the party sent Sandeep Singh, a minister of state and grandson of former chief minister Kalyan Singh, and U.P. BJP secretary Vijay Shivhare to assist.
Present for the party nomination in Moradabad, from where the BJP has repeated its sitting mayor Vinod Agarwal, the only mayoral candidate in the first phase seats to be repeated, were party vice president Pankaj Singh, the lawmaker son of defence minister Rajnath Singh, and minister of state Jaswant Saini.
PARTY WORKERS UPBEAT
The naming of ‘cadre’ candidates for mayoral posts has elated the party’s rank and file, who felt that due to the ‘enormous goodwill’ of chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the work done under his stewardship, all party candidates were hopeful of a win with decisive margins.
“The new MY factor in UP is the Modi-Yogi factor and that is playing out election after election. This one would be no different and even more so now as the party has preferred cadre candidates,” said state BJP co-media in-charge Himanshu Dubey.