UP Assembly Elections: BJP Names 45 More Candidates

New Delhi/Lucknow, Feb 6 (PTI) The BJP named 45 more candidates on Sunday for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, fielding Sanjay Sinh from Amethi and Daya Shankar Singh from Ballia Nagar.

Daya Shankar Singh and his wife Swati Singh, currently a minister in the state government, were both seeking the party ticket to contest from Sarojini Nagar, a seat currently represented in the Assembly by the latter, but the ruling party fielded former Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer Rajeshwar Singh from there.

The party has dropped the incumbent MLA, Surendra Singh, and fielded state minister Anand Swaroop Shukla from Bairia.

Singh hails from the erstwhile royal family of Amethi and had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 after quitting the Congress. The Amethi seat is currently represented in the Assembly by Garima Singh, Singh's first wife.

The saffron party has fielded Manish Jaiswal from Padrauna in Kushinagar district.

Jaiswal was the Congress candidate from the seat. He resigned from the Congress recently after former Union minister RPN Singh joined the BJP.

Padrauna is currently represented in the Assembly by state minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who quit the BJP and joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) recently.

Maurya has been fielded by the SP from the Fazilnagar Assembly constituency in Kushinagar district.

Vandana Singh, the MLA from Sagri in Azamgarh who had joined the BJP from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), has been nominated from the same seat.

Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan's son Ramvilas Chauhan has been fielded by the saffron party from Madhuban in Mau district.

Madhuban is currently represented in the Assembly by state minister Dara Singh Chauhan, who recently joined the SP.

The BJP has fielded Alka Rai from Muhammadabad and state minister Sangeeta Balwant Bind from the Ghazipur Assembly constituency in Ghazipur district.

State minister Anil Rajbhar has been nominated from Shivpur in Varanasi, while Neelkanth Tiwari and Ravindra Jaiswal have been given tickets from the Varanasi South and Varanasi North constituencies respectively.

State minister Ram Shankar Patel has been fielded from Marihan in Mirzapur district.

The 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly is scheduled to go to polls in seven phases from February 10 to March 7 and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)