BJP Fields NISHAD Party MLA On Lotus Symbol From UP's Bhadohi

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday (11 April) released its eleventh list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The list contains only one name of Dr Vinod Kumar, who is currently an MLA from NISHAD paty.

Bind will contest from the Bhadohi parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh on the BJP ticket.

Bind is currently an MLA from the Majhawan Assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh, a post to which he was elected in the 2022 state polls, Economic Times reported.

The NISHAD party fought the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in alliance with BJP and won six seats out of the 403 in the house, contributing to the NDA's 286 seat total.

Earlier on Wednesday (10 April), BJP had released its 10th list of Lok Sabha candidates with nine names.

The party has cut the ticket of sitting two-time Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, replacing her with Sanjay Tandon, BJP's Chandigarh president.

The BJP also declared SS Ahluwalia, the incumbent MP from Bardhaman-Durgapur, as a candidate from Asansol after Bhojpuri star Pawan Singh backed off.

This will be third constituency of West Bengal that Ahluwalia will be contesting. In 2014, he won from Darjeeling and from Bardhaman-Durgapur in 2019.

Seven candidates for Uttar Pradesh were also declared in the 10th list.

UP Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh Thakur will contest from Mainpuri against Samajwadi Party's (SP) Dimple Yadav.

Two incumbent MPs, Vinod Sonkar from Kaushambi and B P Saroj from Machhlishahr have been repeated. Phulpur MLA Praveen Patel has been given a Lok Sabha ticket from the Lok Sabha seat.

As Prayagraj MP and former UP Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi will be 75 years of age in a couple of months, she has been replaced By Neeraj Tripathi.

Rajya Sabha MP and son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Neeraj Shekhar is fielded from Ballia, a constituency he earlier won twice (in 2008 by-polls and 2009) as an SP candidate.

However, in 2014, he lost to BJP's Bharat Singh when he contested on an SP ticket. His father Chandra Sekhar won Lok Sabha elections from here eight times.

In his electoral debut, Paras Nath Rai is set to challenge SP's Afzal Ansari, brother of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari who recently died. Rai comes from an RSS background and is fielded from Ghazipur.

In 2019, the seat was won by Afzal on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket. BJP's Manoj Sinha lost against him and later became Lieutenant Governor of Jammu-Kashmir. Rai is considered close to Sinha.

Also Read: Bhojpuri Star Pawan Singh Announces Contesting From Bihar's Karakat After BJP Declares Ahluwalia As Asansol Candidate