Eyes on UP prize, BJP plays the OBC card in first candidate list

The BJP has also chosen rebels from other parties over its own cadre workers in many seats. Tickets have gone to sitting BSP MLAs including Mahaveer Rana from Behat; Dharam Singh Saini from Nakur; Om Kumar from Nehtaur; Mamtesh Shakya from Patiyali; Roshan Lal Verma from Tilhar; Romi Shahni from Palia and Bala Prasad Awasthi from Dhaurahra.

The BJP has fielded former Congress MLA Pradeep Chaudhary from Gangoh, RLD MLAs Dalveer Singh and Puran Prakash from Baroli from Baldev respectively. Wife of former minister and sitting SP MLA Raja Aridaman Singh, Rani Pakshalika Singh, has got a ticket from Bah in Agra. Both Aridaman and his wife had joined the BJP last week and Aridaman is the sitting MLA from Bah. Pakshalika had lost from Kheragarh in 2012 as the SP candidate. Pakshalika’s name was in the list of candidates that SP stalwart Mulayam Singh Yadav had declared last month.

In Jewar, BJP has given a ticket to former Congress spokesperson Dhirendra Singh. Among 15 Brahmin candidates, a prominent face is BJP national secretary and media in-charge Shrikant Sharma who has got a ticket from Mathura. Also former BJP state president and sitting MLA Laxmikant Bajpair has got a ticket from Meerut.

Party’s own controversial MLAs Sangeet Singh Som and Suresh Rana have got tickets respectively from Sardhana in Meerut and Thana Bhawan in Shamli district. Both the MLAs are named in the case related to Muzaffarnagar riots.
BJP has declared 68 candidates for the first phase nominations for which will begin on Tuesday. BJP has left five seats of the first phase and candidates on these seats are likely to be declared on Tuesday. Candidates for four seats of the second phase are expected on Tuesday because the party today declared candidates for only 63 seats out of 67 seats listed for polling in second phase.

BJP has also declared tickets for its sitting MLAs on 18 seats going to polls in third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh phases. But the party has not declared candidates for the seats of Varanasi and Lucknow which fall in the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh respectively.

The BJP has given ticket to S P Singh Baghel from Tundla that is reserved for Scheduled Castes. Baghel was earlier national president of BJP’s OBC Morcha and he was projected as a prominent OBC face by the party. Baghel joined BJP just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. At that time, he was Rajya Sabha member from BSP. He had resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat and contested from Firozabad but lost.

The party has not announced candidates for Kairana — where MP Hukum Singh is keen on fielding his daughter Mriganka but faces resistance from some leaders – and for Amroha and Noida. Sources said leaders wanted “more talks” as there has been a tussle for tickets in these constituencies.

However, party leaders were silent on the fate of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh’s candidature. Pankaj, party’s UP general secretary, has been expecting a ticket since 2000. The seven-phase polls for the 403 seats in UP on February 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, March 4 and 8.