The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday night announced 17 more candidates for the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The party declared all its nine candidates for the Lucknow seats but the names of Aparna Yadav, the daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s son Mayank were missing.
The ‘chhoti bahu’ of Mulayam, who joined the saffron party last month, had contested the previous Uttar Pradesh elections from Lucknow Cantt but had lost to Rita Joshi. Reportedly, Aparna had urged the BJP high command to field her from the Lucknow Cantt seat.
Interestingly, Rita, who later became a Union Minister in the Modi Cabinet after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, also wanted her son Mayank to contest the polls from the same seat. It should be noted that the high-profile Lucknow Cantt segment is considered a safe seat for the BJP.
In place of Aparna and Rita’s son, the BJP has pinned its hopes in sitting MLA and state minister Brijesh Pathak in the Lucknow Cantt seat. “I respect the decision of the party,” said Rita, as reported by news agency ANI.
Ex-ED director Rajeshwar Singh fielded from Sarojini Nagar
Meanwhile, former Enforcement Directorate (ED) joint director Rajeshwar Singh has been fielded from the Sarojini Nagar seat as the party denied ticket to Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dixit. The party has also denied ticket to Women Welfare Minister Swati Singh from Sarojini Nagar.
“We’ll contribute to governance and to the probes launched by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He is doing great work against mafias. We need to support him. Also, we need to control growing communalism,” the ex-ED official told ANI.
“I will take forward BJP’s ideology of working for the future of country.”
Elections for the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The fate of the candidates will be declared on March 10.
