UP urban local body polls: BJP goes the extra mile, ministers join candidates in nomination-filing yatras

On Monday, the last day of filing of nomination papers for the first phase of the urban body polls, the party put up a grand show across the town where voting will take place on May 4.

In Lucknow, where the BJP has fielded old party hand Sushma Kharakwal for the mayor’s post, Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak and state Finance Minister Suresh Khanna accompanied her for the filing of nomination papers.

“BJP has shown respect to one of the senior most party workers by nominating Sushma Kharakwal as the candidate for Lucknow Mayor. The city will become a smart city under her rule,” Khanna said as he and the Deputy CM took part in an elaborate “rath yatra” from the state BJP headquarters to the Nagar Nigam office.

Like in Lucknow, Cabinet Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, state BJP vice president Neelam Sonkar and other senior leaders were in Gorakhpur to accompany party candidates for the filing of nomination papers. Cabinet Minister Swatantra Dev Singh accompanied Ganesh Kesarwani, who has been fielded by the party for Prayagraj mayor post.

While minister Arvind Kumar Sharma and state BJP secretary Anjula Mahaur were in Agra, their colleagues Jaiveer Singh and Govind Narayan Shukla were in Varanasi for the filing of nomination papers of party candidates.

Minister of State with Independent charge Sandeep Singh was in Moradabad, minister Dinesh Khatik was in Shamli, Somendra Tomar in Muzaffarnagar, Kapil Dev Agrawal in Bijnor, Dharampal Singh in Sambhal, Sanjay Gangwar in Amroha, Anup Pradhan in Maunpuri, Ajit Pal in Firozabad.

Similarly, minister Rakesh Sachan was in Fatehpur, Dharamveer Prajapati in Jalaun, Ramkesh Nishad in Lalitpur, Sanjay Nishad in Bahraich, JPS. Rathore in Hardoi, Pratibha Shukla in Raebareli, Rakesh Rathore in Shravasti, Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh in Sitapur, Dayashankar Singh in Unnao, Anil Rajbhar in Gonda, Ashish Patel in Lakhimpur Kheri, Nitin Agarwal in Pratapgarh, Sanjeev Gond in Chandauli, Dinesh Pratap Singh in Jaunpur, Ravindra Jaiswal in Ghazipur, Satish Sharma in Kushinagar and Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu in Maharajganj for accompanying the party candidates during the filing of nomination papers.

“ We are confident that people will support our party and our candidates like they have done in the past to elect BJP candidates in forming the nagaron ki sarkar,” said state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary, who accompanied party candidates in Saharanpur.

He said the BJP has given tickets to a large number of women candidates and claimed that the party would do even better in the future.

Urban local body polls are taking place for 17 Municipal Corporations, 199 Nagar Palikar Parishads and 544 Nagar Panchayats in two phases. In the first phase, for which April 17 was the last date for filing of nomination papers, 37 districts of nine divisions, including Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Devipatan, Gorakhpur, Varanasi are going for polls.

The second phase of voting will take place on May 11 and the votes will be counted on May 13.

93 candidates filed nominations for mayor posts in 8 out of 17 municipal corporations going for polls in the first phase.

In BSP list of 10 mayor candidates, 6 are Muslims

Lucknow: The BSP on Monday released a list of 10 candidates for mayor posts, including six Muslims, for the first phase of urban local body elections.

While the party has fielded Shaheen Bano for the Lucknow mayor post, it has nominated Mohattisam Ahmed from Mathura-Vrindavan, Ruksana Begum from Firozabad, Khadija Masood from Saharanpur, Mohammad Yameen from Moradabad.

“Bano, a social worker, has been associated with the BSP since 2016. She is the wife of Mohammad Sarwar Malik, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow as a candidate for the Trinamool Congress,” a party leader said.

The party has fielded Lata in Agra, Bhagwan Das Phule in Jhansi, Subhash Chandra Majhi in Varanasi, and Naval Kishore Nathani (Agarwal) in Gorakhpur. ENS