Bharatiya Janata Party declares candidates on 6 of 7 by-poll seats

LUCKNOW : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared candidates on six of the seven by-poll bound assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP), fielding two widows of party’s sitting lawmakers whose demise set up the bypolls in those seats, while holding back declaration in Deoria assembly segment in east UP, where the party is caught in a Brahminbackward fix, party leaders said.

October 16 is the last date for filing nominations for the November 3 by-polls whose results would be announced on November 10.

In Naugawan Sadat seat in Amroha, party fielded Sangeeta Chauhan, wife of former India cricketer turned UP minister Chetan Chauhan who died due to COVID-19 induced complications and in Bulandshahr it allowed Usha Sirohi to stake claim to her husband Virendra Sirohi’s seat.

In Bangarmau, Unnao, however, the party didn’t allow Sangeeta Sengar’s claim to her husband and former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar’s seat, whose disqualification after being convicted in a rape and murder case, caused the by-poll.

“Here, it has opted for Shrikant Katiyar, an OBC and party’s Unnao district chief,” a party leader said.

In Ghatampur reserved seat, where by-poll was caused due to the demise of Kamal Rani Varun, a minister in Yogi Adityanath government, the party has settled for its old warhorse Upendra Paswan while in Tundla, reserved seat, the party opted for Prempal Dhangar.

In Malhani assembly seat of

Jaunpur, where by-poll was required due to the demise of the Samajwadi Party MLA and former minister Parasnath Yadav, the BJP fielded Manoj Singh, a former vice president of Allahabad University (AU). BJP ally, NISHAD party, had staked claim for this seat but the party rejected the claim.

In Deoria assembly segment, the BJP held back the announcement where the Congress and the BSP have both fielded Brahmin candidates. By-poll on this seat was caused due to the demise of sitting BJP MLA Janmejay Singh whose son Ajay is also said to be in the reckoning. Ravindra Mull, the Lok Sabha representative of Deoria MP Ramapati Ram Tripathi is also said to be in the race for a ticket in this seat from where he has been MLA twice in past. Mulls are Sainthwar, an OBC caste.