The BJP on Monday announced candidates for the Lok Sabha byelections for three seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and for one assembly by-election from Bihar.
For the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat, which was represented by Yogi Adityanath but fell vacant when he became Chief Minister of UP, the party has fielded local BJP leader Upendra Shukla who had once contested an assembly poll as an independent candidate when denied the party ticket.
Both Brahmins and Thakurs – the caste of Mr. Adityanath — are influential in Gorakhpur and have also had a rivalry over the decades. The party hopes to retain the seat after the charismatic Mr. Adityanath — who won it five times irrespective of the fortunes of his party — has taken over as Chief Minister.
In Phulpur, a seat that fell vacant when UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated it, the party has fielded Kaushalendra Singh Patel, who has been mayor of Varanasi.
“The Phulpur seat has a large population of OBCs. After Mr. Maurya, an OBC, the party has fielded another OBC in Mr. Patel, as the Kurmis are well-represented there,” said a BJP leader in UP. “It is good that a party man has been given the ticket here.”
Phulpur was once represented by Jawaharlal Nehru.
From Araria in Bihar, a seat that fell vacant after the death of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Mohammed Taslimuddin, the BJP has fielded a backward caste candidate Pradeep Singh.
Mr. Singh had had been elected an MLA in 2005 and also MP in 2009. However, he lost in 2014 after the BJP and JD(U) parted ways.
“Araria has a strong Muslim population and OBC Hindus are also found in large numbers there. If one adds the votes garnered separately by the BJP and JD (U) in 2014, the NDA would have won the seat by about 1-lakh votes. We are hopeful that we are going to retain this seat after the JD (U) returning to the NDA,” said a BJP leader from Bihar.
The BJP has also fielded Rinki Pandey for the assembly by-election from Bhabua in Bihar. The seat had fallen vacant after the death of her husband Anand Bhushan Pandey.
