E-Paper
BJP retains Hema Malini, Kalyan’s son, Baghel, Chahar in Braj region
Two-time sitting MP Hema Malini will contest from Mathura again. Union minister SP Singh Baghel has been fielded from Agra (reserved) for another stint.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday retained four sitting MPs of Agra (reserved), Fatehpur Sikri, Mathura and Etah in the Braj region which has eight parliamentary seats. The names for the Firozabad, Mainpuri, Hathras and Aligarh Lok Sabha seats are yet to be declared.
Two-time sitting MP Hema Malini will contest from Mathura again. Union minister SP Singh Baghel has been fielded from Agra (reserved) for another stint. Former chief minister and ex-Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh governor the late Kalyan Singh’s son Rajveer Singh Raju will seek a hat-trick of wins from Etah.
Jat leader Raj Kumar Chahar, a first time MP from Fatehpur Sikri (Agra rural) who had posted a record win against actor-turned politician Raj Babbar in 2019, will try his luck for a second term from Fatehpur Sikri (Agra rural).
Now, all eyes are on the Samajwadi Party bastion of Mainpuri, which is currently represented by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav. She had won the seat in a by-poll in December 2022 after the demise of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. The BJP has not named anyone for Mainpuri in its first list.
Firozabad is another SP stronghold for which the BJP has noted named a candidate yet.
The Braj region comprises Agra and Aligarh division with eight Lok Sabha seats.
There are five seats in Agra division, namely Agra, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Fatehpur Sikri and Mathura. Aligarh division has Aligarh, Hathras and Etah parliamentary seats.
Hema Malini had won her first Lok Sabha election from Mathura in 2014, defeating Rashtriya Lok Dal leader and sitting MP Jayant Chaudhary. She won again in 2019.
Union minister of state for health and family welfare SP Singh Baghel, who has been again given the ticket for the Agra seat, had lost to the SP candidate in Firozabad in 2014 when he gave a tough fight to Akshay Yadav, son of Prof Ram Gopal Yadav.
In 2019, Baghel replaced Ram Shankar Katheria, the sitting BJP MP from Agra and won. Baghel became Union minister in 2021. Katheria moved to Etawah and won the seat. He was again named the party’s Etawah candidate on the list declared on Saturday.
The sitting Fatehpur Sikri MP Raj Kumar Chahar was elevated as national president for Kisan Morcha of BJP earlier. He too has been named in the party’s first list.
