UP Polls: BJP denies tickets to 20 sitting MLAs, fields 21 new candidates

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released its first list of 107 candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh in which it denied tickets to 20 sitting MLAs and fielded 21 new candidates in the polls scheduled to begin on February 10.

The party has released the list for the first and second phase of elections scheduled to be held on February 10 and 14.

In the list of 107 candidates released by the party, 20 sitting MLAs have been axed. There was an anticipation that the party would not offer a ticket to the MLAs whose performance reports were found to be negative in the survey done by the party.

As many as 63 candidates have been rewarded with a ticket for another run in the Assembly election.

Three candidates are those who had been candidates from the party in the past and have been issued a ticket in this election.

The sitting MLAs who have been denied another run in this election include Radha Mohan from Gorakhpur, where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been fielded for the first time in an Assembly poll. Notably, he has been an MP from the constituency five times since 1998.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya will replace Sheetala Prasad who is the sitting MLA from Sirathu.
From Agra (rural), Hemlata Diwakar has been replaced by Baby Rani Maurya after she resigned as the governor of Uttarakhand.

The other MLAs who have been replaced include Jitendra Pal from Siwalkhas. Manindar Pal replaced him from the constituency. Satya Prakash Agarwal from Meerut Cantt has been replaced by Amit Agarwal.

Garh Mukteshwar MLA Kamal Singh Malik has been denied the ticket and replaced by Harendra Chaudhary. Bimla Singh Solanki from Sikandarabad has been replaced by Lakshmi Raj Singh.

Usha Sirohi from Bulandshahar has been axed and Pradeep Chaudhary has been given a run in the polls.

From the Dibai constituency, GP Singh has replaced Anita Rajput. Meenakshi Singh has been given a ticket from Khurja axing Virendra Singh.
Dalveer Singh has been replaced by Jay Veer Singh from Barauli. Kavindra Singh has been replaced by Meghshayam Singh from Govardhan. Ram Pratap Singh has been replaced by Dharampal Singh from Etmadpur.
Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh has been replaced by Chaudhary Babulal from Fatehpur. Mahesh Kumar Goyal has been replaced by Bhagwan Singh from Kheragarh. Jitendra Verma has been replaced by Chote Lal Verma from Fatehabad.
Devendra Nagpal replaces Sangeeta Chauhan from Naugawan Sadat. Raghvendra Verma has replaced Rajesh Kumar Mishra from Bithri Chainpur. Sanjeev Agarwal has replaced Rajesh Agarwal from Bareilly Cantonment.
The party has fielded three new faces.
BJP on Saturday released its first list of 107 candidates for the first and second phase of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls that are scheduled to be held on February 10 and 14.
Keeping the caste arithmetic balance and to gain voters, Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded women on 10 seats, OBC candidates on 44 seats and scheduled castes (SC) candidates from 19 seats, accounting for 60 per cent of the total.
In the list released today, 83 are current MLAs of BJP and 21 individuals are new candidates in a list of 107 candidates released today in toto.
Elections for the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10, the Election Commission said.
The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)