Will the tradition be broken in UP?

Lucknow: The politics of Uttar Pradesh is bizarre compared to the rest of the nation, as in this state, there is no tradition, for the past 20 years, of Chief Ministers contesting Assembly polls.

Rajnath Singh was the last CM who had fought the Assembly elections in 2002 and in that election too he contested by getting an Opposition MLA to vacate the seat. BSP chief Mayawati became CM in 2007 & instead of going through the electorate, she remained a member of the Legislative Council.

Akhilesh Yadav, who became CM in 2012, was an MP and he also became a member of the Legislative Council. Then in 2017, when Yogi Adityanath became the CM, he was also an MP at that time and after becoming CM, he became a member of the Legislative Council.

Therefore, the question is, will this tradition be broken this time around? The BJP’s Central Election Committee held a meeting on Thursday to decide the names of the candidates.

It is being said that this time the party wants CM Yogi Adityanath and both the Deputy CMs—Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma—to contest the Assembly elections.

With this, the tradition of contesting the election by Chief Ministers can be restored. As far as former Chief Ministers and CM candidates are concerned, as of now, BSP chief Mayawati’s party has announced that she will not contest polls.

There is no information if SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the elections or not as he is currently a member of the Lok Sabha