The Bharatiya Janata Party on April 10 released a list of candidates for seven parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Neeraj Shekhar, a current Rajya Sabha member and the son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, will be contesting from the Ballia Lok Sabha seat, replacing the current MP Virendra Singh Mast.
Neeraj Tripathi, son of late veteran BJP leader and former Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi replaces Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the sitting MP from Allahabad. In Ghazipur parliamentary seat Paras Nath Rai, a close confidant of Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir is given the BJP symbol to contest against Afzal Ansari, the sitting MP, who is contesting on the Samajwadi Party (SP) symbol.
Additionally, sitting Phulpur MP Keshri Devi Patel has been substituted by Parveen Patel. B.P. Saroj, the sitting MP from Machhlishahr, Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved constituency has been renominated by the BJP. In Mainpuri, the bastion of the opposition SP, Jaiveer Singh, a U.P. Minister, is made the BJP candidate to take on Dimple Yadav of the SP. In Kaushambi, Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved constituency, Vinod Sonkar, the sitting MP, will be seeking re-election for a third term.
The candidate list signifies outreach towards upper castes and non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBCs) with all the five candidates nominated from General seats hailing from these social groups considered core voter base of the BJP.
