File photo of Dimple Yadav
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: The BJP on Wednesday announced its 10th list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, pitting Uttar Pradesh minister Jaiveer Singh Thakur against Dimple Yadav, the wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, from Mainpuri.
Former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar's son Neeraj Shekhar also found mention in the list of seven candidates.
Kesri Nath Tripathi's, son Neeraj Tripathi, has been fielded from Allahabad from where former UP Congress president Reeta Bahuguna Joshi, is the sitting MP.
Neeraj Shekhar replaces the sitting MP from Ballia, Virendra Singh 'Mast'. A few senior district BJP leaders in Ballia had urged the party leadership not to re-nominate Virendra Singh.
Paras Nath Rai has been fielded from the Ghazipur LS seat from where the Samajwadi Party (SP) has nominated Afzal Ansari, the brother of gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari, who died following a cardiac arrest in Banda district jail recently. Afzal had won the seat in the 2019 LS polls on a BSP ticket but joined the SP recently.
BJP has also replaced its candidate in Phulpur and has fielded Praveen Patel from there. The sitting MP, Kesri Devi Patel, has been denied re-nomination. The seat was a bone of contention between the BJP and its alliance partner Apna Dal (Anupriya Patel), which had demanded that it be allowed to field its candidate there.
While Vinod Sonekar has been re-nominated from the Kaushambi LS seat, the BJP has fielded B D Sonekar from the Machhlishahr LS seat in Jaunpur district.