BJP, SP candidate lists show contrasting strategies
Among these 51 seats, the Samajwadi Party had earlier named candidates on 22 seats and 10 seats had been allotted to the Congress under a seat-sharing formula. The Congress is yet to name its candidates though.
The BJP’s announcement of party candidates for 51 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday has set the stage for a contest between the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc.
Among these 51 seats, the Samajwadi Party had earlier named candidates on 22 seats and 10 seats had been allotted to the Congress under a seat-sharing formula. The Congress is yet to name its candidates though.
While the BJP has repeated its sitting MPs on the seats it won in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the SP has changed candidates on several seats after its pact with the Congress.
Once the Bahujan Samaj Party announces its candidates, all the Lok Sabha seats are likely to witness a triangular fight among the NDA, INDIA bloc and the BSP that has announced it will go solo.
Among the 22 seats the SP had won Sambhal and Azamgarh in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Later, the SP lost the Azamgarh seat in a by-poll while Sambhal seat has fallen vacant due to the death of sitting SP MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq recently.
The BJP has fielded its sitting MP Dinesh Yadav Lal Yadav “Nirahua” from Azamgarh where SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is likely to contest. Nirahua was defeated by Akhilesh Yadav in 2019 Lok Sabha election, but won against SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav in a 2022 by-election.
In Sambhal, the BJP has fielded Prameshwar Lal Saini who was defeated by Barq in 2019.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who heads the list of 51 candidates, will be in the fray against Surendra Singh Patel of the SP in Varanasi.
BJP candidate Rajveer Singh alias Raju Bhaiya will be challenged by the SP candidate Devesh Shakya on Etah seat. Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni will be up against SP candidate Utkarsh Verma in Kher. The BJP’s Rekha Verma will be in the fray against the SP’s Anand Bhadouria in Dhaurhara.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh will contest against SP MLA from Lucknow Central Ravidas Mehrotra. The Banda seat will witness a fight between Kurmi community leaders RK Singh Patel (BJP) and Shivshankar Singh Patel (SP). BJP candidate Lallu Singh will seek re-election against SP MLA Awadesh Prasad from Faizabad.
Samajwadi Party leader Lalji Verma, a former BSP minister, will face BJP’s Ritesh Pandey in Ambedkar Nagar. Recently, Pandey quit the BSP and joined the BJP. In Basti, Harish Dwivedi will be in the fray against the SP’s Ram Prasad Chaudhary.
In Gorakhpur, sitting MP and film star Ravi Kisan Shukla will be face Kajal Nishad who was defeated in the 2022 assembly election on Gorakhpur rural assembly seat.
The BJP’s Mukesh Rajput will fight against the SP’s Nawal Kishore Shakya on Farrukhabad seat. Sitting BJP MP from Akbarpur Devendra Singh Bhole will be up against the SP’s Raja Ram Pal. The Muzaffarnagar seat will witness a battle between BJP’s Sanjeev Kumar Balyan and SP candidate Harendra Mullick. Aonla will witness a contest between sitting BJP MP Dharmendra Kashyap and Neeraj Maurya, the SP nominee.
Pasi community leaders Kaushal Kishore (Union minister and BJP candidate) and RK Chaudhary (SP) will be in the poll arena for the reserved Mohanlalganj seat.
SP candidate SP Singh Patel, who runs a chain of schools, will be in the fight against the BJP candidate Sangam Lal Gupta in Pratapgarh. Sitting BJP MP from Gonda Kirti Vardhan Singh will take on Shreya Verma of the SP.
Union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey will contest the Chandauli seat against Virendra Singh of the SP.