2024 LS polls: BSP’s Basti candidate changed, move likely to dent SP

Earlier, the party had fielded a Brahmin candidate Dayashankar Mishra from the seat but later replaced him with an OBC one Lav Kush Patel

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday changed her party candidate from Uttar Pradesh’s Basti Lok Sabha seat. On the last day of filing of nominations for the sixth phase Lok Sabha election, the BSP announced that Lav Kush Patel, an OBC (Kurmi), will now be the party’s candidate from the seat.

Now an OBC Lav Kush Patel will be BSP candidate from Basti Lok Sabha seat. (For Representation)

Earlier, the party had fielded a Brahmin candidate Dayashankar Mishra from the seat against BJP candidate Harish Dwivedi and SP candidate Ram Prasad Chaudhary. Mishra is a former BJP Basti district unit president.

Later on Monday, Lav Kush Patel, the son of two-term BSP MLA Jitendra Chaudhary, filed his nomination. The BSP’s move is likely to dent the Samajwadi Party support base as the SP candidate Ram Prasad Chaudhary, who was a minister in the BSP government, also comes from Kurmi community.

During his recent visit to Lucknow, Union home minister Amit Shah had reviewed party’s preparations on the Lok Sabha seats going to poll in the fourth, fifth and sixth phases of the election. Former minister Raj Kishore Singh, who had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket, joined the BJP.

Singh, who was a minister in the SP government, has hold over the upper caste Rajput voters in Basti constituency. Moreover, the BSP also declared Ravi Singh Kharwar as its candidate for by-poll to Duddhi (ST) assembly seat of Sonbhadra district.