BJP releases the first list of 107 candidates for UP polls; Yogi to contest from Gorakhpur

The BJP has released its first list of 105 candidates for the first two phases of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly elections. Besides, it has fielded Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur (Urban) and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu. If we include these two, the party has released a list of 107 candidates. There have been various reports about Yogi.  Some of them said he would contest from Ayodhya while others talked of his candidature from Mathura. Now that the BJP has announced in the list that he will contest the elections from Gorakhpur, all speculations have been put to rest. Gorakhpur will go to the polls in the sixth phase on March 3 and Sirathu in the fifth phase on February 27.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is the BJP’s UP poll in-charge said at a press conference in Delhi on January 15, “We have announced 105 candidates today. There are 83 BJP legislators on these seats currently. We have given tickets to 63 of them again.” A total of 113 seats are going to the polls in the first two phases. The party has not announced the names of eight of these candidates. “The names of the candidates for these eight seats have been discussed and the right to decide on these has been given to BJP president JP Nadda,” said Pradhan.

Pradhan said that the Parliamentary Board, the apex decision-making body of the BJP, had decided to field Yogi from Gorakhpur and Maurya from Sirathu. In the meeting held on Thursday February 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and other members of the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the party sealed the names announced so far.

Yogi did not request any particular seat

There were many reports about Yogi Adityanath contesting from the Ayodhya seat and the party too discussed it, but the final say was given to the CEC. On being asked about this, Pradhan said, “Yogi Adityanath had not requested to contest from any particular seat. The party decided to field him from Gorakhpur (Urban) and he happily accepted the decision.”

Among the candidates announced for the first two phases, former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya has been fielded from Agra (Rural) constituency. Among other prominent names in the list are Power Minister Shrikant Sharma, who has been retained from Mathura, Mriganka Singh from Kairana, Pankaj Singh (son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh) from Noida, Cane Development and Sugar Industry Minister Suresh Rana from Thana Bhawan and Dhirendra Singh from Jewar. Suresh Khanna, Minister of State for Finance and Parliamentary Affairs, will contest from Shahjahanpur and Sangeet Som from Sardhana.

20 new faces in the BJP list

Pradhan said that the party had given tickets to 20 new candidates from various sections of society, including the youth, women and intellectuals. He said, “The main criterion for selecting the candidates was their commitment to the party and its ideology along with their winnability.” He claimed that the BJP alliance would get a clear majority in the elections with more than 300 seats.

58 seats go to the polls on Feb 10

UP will go to the polls in seven phases. The initial phase on February 10 will have elections for 58 seats from 11 districts of the western part of the state. The second phase of the elections will be held on February 14 for 55 seats in the state. Voting will be held on 59 seats of the 403-member Assembly in the third phase on the 20th of February, 60 in the fourth phase on the 23rd, another 60 in the fifth phase on the 27th, 57 seats in the sixth phase on March 3 and 54 seats in the seventh phase on March 7.  

The BJP has given the tickets, among others, to Tejendra Singh Nirwal from Shamli, Sapna Kashyap from Charthawal, Pramod Utwal from Purqazi, Kapil Dev Aggarwal from Muzaffarnagar, Vikram Saini from Khatauli, Prashant Gurjar from Meerapur, Manendra Pal Singh from Siwalkhas, Dinesh Khatik from Hastinapur, Amit Aggarwal from Meerut Cantt, Satyavir Tyagi from Kithore,  Kamal Dutt Sharma from Meerut, Somendra Tomar from Meerut South, Sahender Singh Ramala from Chhaprauli, KP Singh Malik from Baraut, Yogesh Dhama from Baghpat, Nandkishor Gurjar from Loni and Ajit Pal Tyagi from Muradnagar.