BJP’s 3rd UP LS list of 7 candidates has ex-PM’s son; party drops 5 sitting MPs

The BJP has so far named candidates for 70 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP and it has so far replaced candidates on 18 seats

Lucknow: The BJP has fielded Paras Nath Rai, owner of several colleges in eastern Uttar Pradesh, as its Lok Sabha candidate for Ghazipur, ending speculation whether the current lieutenant governor of J&K Manoj Sinha would resign to contest the seat, which he had won thrice in the past but lost in 2019.

Paras Nath Rai was among the seven candidates named by the BJP in its third UP list. Barring two seats, Kaushambi and Macchlishahr, the BJP has changed candidates on the remaining five seats (AFP file photo.)

Rai, who has worked closely with Sinha in the past, will fight against Samajwadi Party’s Afzal Ansari, the brother ofgangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who recently died.

In the 2019 elections, Ansari contested from Ghazipur on a Samajwadi Party (SP)- Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance ticket and defeated Sinha.

Rai was among the seven candidates named by the BJP in its third UP list. Barring two seats, Kaushambi and Macchlishahr, the BJP has changed candidates on the remaining five seats.

The BJP has so far named candidates for 70 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP and it has so far replaced candidates on 18 seats. The party is yet to declare a candidate for the Congress bastion of Rae Bareli from where it is being speculated that a member of the Gandhi family could contest.

The BJP has also kept up the suspense on Kaiserganj, the Lok Sabha seat from where former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is the five-term MP.

The BJP has replaced its sitting MPs in Prayagraj (Rita Bahuguna Joshi) with Neeraj Tripathi, the son of former West Bengal governor late Keshari Nath Tripathi.

In Mainpuri, a SP citadel where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife is contesting, the BJP has named former SP leader-turned UP minister Jaiveer Singh, a local lawmaker from Mainpuri, as the candidate.

In Ballia, in eastern UP, the BJP has dropped sitting MP Virendra Mast, replacing him with Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar; Shekhar joined the BJP after a long stint with the SP.

From the Kaushambi reserved seat, the BJP has renamed Vinod Sonkar and from Phulpur Lok Sabha seat the BJP has named local lawmaker Pravin Patel as its candidate; From Macclishahr the BJP has renamed BP Saroj as its candidate.

Focus on Ghazipur

Sharp focus would be on Ghazipur from where Ansari won as the joint BSP-SP alliance candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls defeating Sinha, a civil engineer by profession and former Union minister, in a close contest.

Ansari subsequently joined the SP whose chief Akhilesh Yadav had visited Ghazipur’s Mohammadabad to offer condolences to the Ansaris on the demise of Mukhtar Ansari who had died in Banda jail on March 28.

Apart from the 70 candidates that BJP has named in UP, it has left Ghosi Lok Sabha seat for its ally SBSP, Baghpat and Bijnor Lok Sabha seats in west UP for RLD. It is also likely to allot two seats to Apna Dal (S) and at least one seat to Nishad party, its other OBC allies in the state.