BSP released third list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections in UP

LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) released its third list of candidates on Wednesday. Three BJP turncoats were declared candidates by the party in the list released on Wednesday. Three brahmans and two muslims were among the 12 candidates whose names were officially declared by BSP. The party has, so far, declared 37 candidates for Lok Sabha elections in UP. The state has 80 parliamentary seats.

In Lucknow, the party has fielded a Muslim candidate, Sarwar Malik. Malik contested the Lucknow North constituency in the 2022 UP assembly elections for BSP. His wife, Shahin Bano was the party's mayoral candidate for UP urban local body polls held in May last year. In Kannauj, also, the party has fielded a Muslim, Imran Bin Jafar.

In Mathura, the party replaced Kamal Kant Upamanyu with Suresh Singh. A former IRS officer, Singh has had a long association with RSS, VHP and BJP. In 2019, after he was denied a ticket from BJP from Mathura, he joined BSP. He was vying for the BJP ticket in Mathura in 2014, as well. Being a Jat, the party decided to field him against BJP's third-time candidate, Hema Malini, in Mathura.

BSP made the last minute changes to replace the candidates in Ghaziabad and Aligarh, as well. In Aligarh, the party's district unit had declared Gufran Noor, former district president of AIMIM as the candidate. In the official list released on Wednesday, however, it was Hitendra Kumar alias Bunty Upadhyay, a brahman, who was declared the candidate in Aligarh. Upadhyay is also a BJP turncoat.

In Ghaziabad, it was 30-something Anshay Kalra, a realtor hailing from Punjabi community, who emerged as the frontrunner for the party ticket. But, in the final list, it was yet another BJP turncoat, Nand Kishore Pundhir, who made it. Pundhir is a Thakur.

Meanwhile, in another significant seat, Lalganj, which is reserved for SCs and which the BSP won in 2019, Indu Choudhary was declared the candidate. The party's sitting MP from Lalganj, Sangeeta Azad had quit BSP recently to join BJP. Choudhary, on the other hand, is a professor in BHU, Varanasi. She has been a follower of Kanshiram's ideology and has worked for the cause of the `Bahujan' movement. She has been associated with the party for quite some time.

In Unnao, BSP has fielded Ashok Pandey and in Mirzapur, Manish Tripathi. In the SC-reserved seats of Mohanlalganj and Kaushambi, Rajesh Kumar alias Manoj Pradhan and Shubh Narayan were declared the candidates respectively. In Mainpuri, party has fielded Gulshan Dev Shakya and in Kheri, BSP has reposed faith in Anshay Kalra Rocky.