Son,wife,kin — family matters in latest BJP list

In another such instance,Ranjana Yadav who have been fielded from Nizamabad is wife of party MP from Azamgarh Ramakant Yadav. Yogendra Yadav who has been given ticket for Gopalpur is another relative of Ramakant Yadav. Sources said the candidate from Didarganj — Shyam Sunder Chauhan (singer) — is also close aide of Ramakant Yadav. Yadav’s son Arun Yadav has already been given ticket from Jalalpur and his name was declared in a list released earlier.

Arijeet Singh who has been given ticket for Mau constituency is son of Ramji Singh,former MLC and ex-state organisation secretary.

Party has also given tickets to some turncoats. Jokhulal Yadav has been ticket from Phulpur. Surprisingly,Jokhulal had joined BJP two days back,on January 4,and he had been three times Samajwadi Party MLA in the past.

Sangeet Singh Som who has been given ticket for Sardhana seat had joined BJP about few weeks back after leaving Samajwadi Party.

“Besides considering the party’s victorious candidates,party national president Nitin Gadkari had got a survey conducted to test the candidates of other parties. In view of their ability to win,they have been inducted in the party,” said a BJP leader.

The party has repeated its candidates on three seats in Lucknow where it enjoys stronghold. The party has fielded Suresh Srivastava from Lucknow West,Vidyasagar Gupta from Lucknow Central and Suresh Tiwari from Lucknow cantonment. All these three candidates have been party MLAs on their respective seats for past 14 years.

The resentment among the party workers over ticket distribution also came to fore on Friday when over 400 workers from Kalpi constituency of Jalaun district staged a dharna at state headquarters in Lucknow. From Kalpi,the party has fielded state vice-president Swatantra Dev Singh. Agitated workers said the party has denied ticket to former MLA Arun Mehrotra who had won 2002 poll but faced defeat in 2007.

The protesting workers gave a memorandum to party leaders and threatened them to vote against Swatantra Dev Singh if the ticket was not given to Mehrotra.