LUCKNOW: With the most high profile name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeated as BJP candidate from Varanasi, a seat which he has been representing in Lok Sabha since 2014, the ruling party’s first list, released on Saturday evening, comprised of 51 names of candidates given the ticket across the state.
There were no major surprises as the party has apparently trusted the old guard, while reposing faith in 44 sitting MPs including Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Smriti Irani from Amethi and Hema Malini, who was accused of abandoning her constituency, from Mathura.
The party has also repeated three losing candidates of 2019 besides going for four new faces in Shravasti, Jaunpur, Ambedkarnagar and Nagina.
The three losing candidates of 2019 include Parmeshawar Saini from Sambhal, Neelam Sonkar from Lalganj and Kanwar Singh Tanwar from Amroha. While Sambhal and Amroha in western UP were lost to SP and BSP respectively, in 2019, Lalganj in eastern UP was bagged by the BSP.
Moreover, the most controversial re-nomination is that of Ajay Mishra Teni, the Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son Ashish’s name was involved when a vehicle mowed down farmers during the 2020-21 farmers protest in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Teni will contest from the Lakhimpur Kheri seat in UP. The controversy notwithstanding, the BJP won all the eight seats of Lakhimpur Kheri district, in the 2022 UP assembly polls.
