The BJP has fielded Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Satyadev Pachauri from Kanpur replacing veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. Mr. Pachauri is an MLA from Govind Nagar seat and currently holds the Khadi Village Industries, Sericulture, Textile, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Export Promotion portfolios.
Jaya Prada, former Samajwadi Party MP, will contest the Lok Sabha election 2019 from Rampur as a BJP candidate. The new BJP entrant and yesteryear actor replaces Nepal Singh, and will go head-to-head against senior SP leader and her bete noire Azam Khan. Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, who was Pilibhit MP, has swapped seats with her son Varun Gandhi, who had won Sultanpur in 2014.
Releasing a list of 29 names from UP, the BJP also made changes on other seats, replacing incumbents or shifting them elsewhere.
Ashok Dohre was replaced by Ram Shankar Katheria in Etawah, a reserved seat. Mr. Katheria won from Agra in 2014. Another State Cabinet Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi has been fielded from Allahabad, from where she was once a Mayor. Sitting BJP MP industrialist Shyama Charan Gupta recently changed sides to the SP and is fielded from Banda in Bundelkhand.
In another reserved seat in Bahraich, where BJP MP Savitri Bai Phule quit the party and joined the Congress, the BJP has fielded a sitting MLA Akshayvar Lal Gaud. A sitting MLA Upendra Rawat from Zaidpur has also replaced Priyanka Rawat as the candidate in Barabanki, adjoining Lucknow. Virendra Singh Mast, who won from Bhadohi in 2014, has been shifted to Ballia in place of Bharat Singh.
Union Minister Manoj Sinha will once again defend his constituency Ghazipur while BJP State president Mahendra Nath Pandey will contest from Chandauli this time too.
In Faizabad, the BJP has repeated incumbent Lallu Singh, while Jagdimbika Pal is fielded again from Doomariyaganj, Union Minister Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur, and Subrat Pathak, who lost in a close contest to Dimple Yadav, from Kannauj.
The SP also announced its candidate in Faizabad, former MLA Anand Sen Yadav, while former MP and 2014 runner-up Devendra Yadav will contest in Etah and former MLA Hemraj Verma in Pilibhit.
