The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the names of its candidates for the upcoming by-polls for two Parliamentary constituencies in…
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the names of its candidates for the upcoming by-polls for two Parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh and one Parliamentary constituency in Bihar.
The party also named its candidate for the by-poll for a single Legislative seat in Bihar.
Kaushalendra Singh Patel and Upendra Shukla will contest from Phulpur and Gorakhpur, respectively. The two seats fell vacant after Yogi Adityanath and Keshav Prasad Maurya resigned to take charge of the state following BJP’s stupendous win in the 2017 assembly elections.
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While Adityanath assumed office as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Maurya was made the Deputy Chief Minister in the government.
While Kaushalendra Singh is the former mayor of Varanasi, Shukla is known for his organisational skills.
By nominating Pradeep Singh from Araria Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, the BJP reposed its faith in the leader who had lost from the same seat in 2014 to RJD’s Taslimuddin, whose demise necessitated the poll.
BJP fielded Rinki Pandey from Bihar’s Bhabua, a legislative assembly seat which has become a bone of contention between allies RJD and Congress. The seat was held by BJP’s Anand Bhushan Pandey who won against the JD(U) candidate in the 2015 Bihar Assembly Elections.
Since at the time the JD(U) was a member of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, the RJD and the Congress didn’t field candidates.
Responding to RJD’s decision to contest from three seats, including Araria, in Bihar, Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh had said on 14 February that since neither Congress nor RJD fielded candidates, “political equations now dictate that the Congress should contest on the seat”.
The by-elections are scheduled to be held on March 11.
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