Seven Muslims Among BSP's 16 Declared Candidates, Only One Incumbent MP Features, That Too For Another Seat

The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday (24 March) declared 16 candidates in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Among these 16 candidates, seven are Muslims including former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abid Ali, who got a ticket from Aonla.

Anis Ahmed Khan aka Phool Babu, who unsuccessfully fought the 2022 UP Assembly elections from Pilibhit's Bisalpur, has now got a Lok Sabha ticket from Pilibhit.

Another loser of the 2022 elections, Surendra Pal Singh, who came third behind Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Purqazi, got a ticket from Nagina.

As sitting Amroha MP Danish Ali has now got a Congress ticket from here, the BSP nominated Mujahid Hussain for Amroha.

Interestingly, the list contains four seats where BSP won in the 2019 elections. However, the party does not repeat any of these MPs.

Vijendra Singh replaces Malook Nagar in Bijnor, Surendra Pal Singh replaces Girish Chandra in Nagina and Majid Ali replaced Haji Fazlur Rehman in Saharanpur.

However, sitting Nagina MP Girish Chandra Jatav has got a ticket from Bulandshahar. He is considered close to Mayawati and was appointed as leader of BSP in Lok Sabha in March 2022.

Dara Singh Prajapati, who was in the news a few days ago for his illegal construction being bulldozed in Meerut, got a ticket from Muzaffarnagar.

The only Brahmin in the list is Devvratt Tyagi, who got a ticket from Meerut and the only Bania is Praveen Bansal, who got a ticket from Baghpat.