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Journalism of Courage
The BJP has denied ticket to Speaker of the outgoing Assembly Hriday Narayan Dixit, minister Swati Singh and two sitting MLAs in the upcoming Assembly polls in UP. Instead, the party has fielded Rajrajeswar Singh, a day after the ED joint director announced that his application for voluntary retirement has been accepted.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, who joined BJP a few weeks ago, is also not in the list of 17 candidates released by the party on Tuesday. She was reportedly in contention for a ticket from Lucknow Cantonment. Sources in the BJP said that Aparna will likely be “compensated” with a post in the organisation. BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was seeking ticket for his son from Lucknow Cantonment, also seems to have been snubbed. The party has instead fielded minister Brijesh Pathak from Lucknow Cantt and dropped its sitting MLA Suresh Chandra Tiwari.
In Lucknow Central, from where Pathak was elected in 2017, the BJP has given ticket to municipal corporator and local businessman Rajneesh Gupta. The BJP has also replaced Bakshi Ka Talab MLA Avinash Trivedi with Yogesh Shukla.
In Lucknow West, where its sitting MLA Suresh Kumar Srivastava died of Covid-19 last year, the party has fielded Anjani Srivastava. Lucknow East sitting MLA Ashutosh Tandon “Gopal” has, however, been retained.
Former ED officer Rajrajeswar Singh has been fielded from Sarojini Nagar from where minister Swati Singh was in the race for ticket along with her husband Dayashankar Singh.
In Bhagwantnagar in Unnao district from where five-time MLA and Speaker Dixit had won in 2017, the party has fielded Ashutosh Shukla.
Other seats where sitting BJP MLAs have been retained include Malihabad, Maholi, and Chitrakoot. In Unchahar, the party has fielded state general secretary Amarpal Maurya. In Sitapur where its sitting MLA Rakesh Rathore joined the SP, the party has fielded a new candidate with same name — Rakesh Rathore ‘Guru’.
