BSP names all candidates for Prayagraj region

PRAYAGRAJ: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has declared the names of all candidates for the 22 assembly seats of Prayagraj region, with announcement of the three remaining candidates for the assembly seats in Praygaraj district on Tuesday. The party has already declared candidates for all its remaining seats of Pratapgarh and Kaushambi districts of the Prayagraj region. The BSP is the first among major political parties to complete the lists of candidates.

In Prayagraj district, the Mayawati-led party has fielded Lallan Singh Patel from Allahabad West seat, Rajbali Jaisal from Koraon and Anand Bhartiya from Soraon. A farmer, Lallan, was in the BJP till two years back but after being denied ticket had shifted his loyalties to BSP.

Rajbali is a two-time MLA of BSP having been elected from this very seat last time in 2017 defeating Congress candidate Ram Kripal by a margin of 53,696 votes. Anand Bharti, a real estate businessman, is also nephew of former BJP MP Amrit Lal Bharti.

With the final list of Prayagraj seats out, the BSP this time has bet on businessmen, teacher, doctor, lawyer and a retired government servant among others in an effort to form new equations on the poll arena. The party also seems to be going for new faces as 11 out of the 12 candidates of the district would be contesting first ever assembly election of their political careers.

Earlier, the party had announced name of former chairman of UP Bar Council and a serving member of UP Bar Council Devendra Mishra “Nagraha” as its candidate from Prayagraj’s Allahabad South assembly seat, former MD of UP Bridge Corporation Ghanshyam Pandey from Pratappur seat, a surgeon with his own nursing home Dr Shiv Prakash from Bara assembly constituency, a businessman and an owner of a school Sanjay Goswami from Allahabad North, former Saidabad Block chairman Narendra Tripathi from Handia, a former Zila panchayat member Arvind Shukla from Karchana, a businessman Raltoulan Yadav from Phulpur, a teacher and former Zila Panchayat member Om Prakash Patel from Phaphamau and Sarvesh Chandra Tiwari who has earlier been with Congress, Nishad party and the BJP, from Meja seat.

For Pratapgarh’s seven seats, the party has fielded Bankelal Patel Advocate from Rampur Khas, Sushil Kumar Gautam Advocate from Babaganj (Reserved), Mohammad Faheem alias Pappu Bhai from Kunda, Sanjay Tripathi from Vishwanathganj, Ashutosh Tripathi from Pratapgarh (Sadar), Phoolchandra Mishra from Patti and Ajay Yadav from Raniganj seat.

In Kaushambi, the party has entered Santosh Kumar Tripathi from Sirathu, Neetu Kanojia from Manjhanpur (Reserved) and Atul Kumar Dwivedi from Chail.