Lok Sabha polls: BSP names 11 candidates
BSP sprung a surprise by fielding Srikala Reddy, wife of gangster turned politician Dhananjay Singh from Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced candidates on 11 Lok Sabha seats on Tuesday.
The BSP has fielded a Muslim candidate, Athar Jamal Lari from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress has fielded UP Congress Committee president Ajay Rai against Modi. The BSP candidate who has contested three Vidhan Sabha and two Lok Sabha elections unsuccessfully, has earlier been associated with Samajwadi Party and Quami Ekta Dal (QED) launched by gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari, who is contesting the Lok Sabha elections on an SP ticket from neighbouring Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat.
Lari is likely to dent into the Muslim support base of the Congress-SP alliance.
BSP sprung a surprise by fielding Srikala Reddy, wife of gangster turned politician Dhananjay Singh from Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat. Singh, a two-term former MLA, was keen to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Jaunpur. He secured victory on the seat in 2009 Lok Sabha election on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.
In the first week of March, he was sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment by the Jaunpur MP/MLA court in a 2020 kidnapping of a senior U.P. Jal Nigam officer.
The BJP has fielded former Maharashtra minister Kripa Shankar Singh while the SP has fielded Babu Singh Kushwaha a former aide of the BSP chief Mayawati. Kushwaha was jailed in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam in 2012. After coming out of jail, he floated the Jan Adhikar Party, after which he joined the SP.
Mayawati has fielded former MLA Shiv Prasad Yadav from Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, replacing Glushan Dev Shakya. Yadav had secured victory from the Bharthana assembly seat in Etawah district on a BSP ticket in 2007. Later, he defected to the BJP and in 2023, launched Sarvajan Sukhay Party, after resigning from the BJP.
Dimple Yadav, wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, is contesting on a SP ticket while the BJP has fielded UP tourism and culture minister, Jaivir Singh from Mainpuri. Interestingly, after the denial of a ticket by BSP, Shakya joined the SP.
BSP has fielded former MLA Muslim Khan from Budaun Lok Sabha seat from where SP has fielded Aditya Yadav, son of the party general secretary, Shivpal Yadav, while the BJP has fielded Durvijay Singh.
Former MLA Master Chhotelal Gangwar has been fielded by BSP from the Bareilly Lok Sabha seat against the BJP candidate Chhatrapal Gangwar and Congress candidate Praveen Singh Aron. BSP has fielded Udai Raj Verma from Sultanpur Lok Sabha against the BJP candidate former union minister Maneka Gandhi. The SP has fielded former minister Ram Bhuval Nishad.
The BSP has fielded Kranti Pandey from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha seat against sitting BJP MP Mukesh Rajput and SP has fielded Naval Kishore Shakya. Mayank Dwivedi, son of former MLA Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi, has been fielded from Banda Lok Sabha seat. The BJP has fielded sitting MP, RK Singh Patel while the Congress-SP alliance has fielded former minister Shiv Shankar Singh Patel.
On the Domariyaganj Lok Sabha seat, the BSP has fielded party worker Khwaja Shamsuddin against sitting BJP candidate Jagdambika Pal. The Samajwadi Party has fielded former MP Bhishm Shankar Tiwari on the seat.
BSP has fielded ex-Army personnel Lallan Singh Yadav from the Ballia Lok Sabha seat. BJP has fielded Neeraj Shekhar a two-term MP and son of former prime minister Chandrashekhar.
The BSP has fielded former student union leader of the Banaras Hindu University, Umesh Kumar Singh, from the Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat. The SP has fielded former MP Afzal Ansari who secured victory in 2019 Lok Sabha election on a BSP ticket, while the BJP has fielded Paras Nath Rai.