In the hinterland of Uttar Pradesh, many political parties are choosing dynastic politics over the politics based on ideology.

When the leaders of the ruling BJP start attacking dynasty politics, the opposition leaders retaliate by naming many of their leaders promoting their own family.

Despite refraining from giving tickets to many people from the same family, the BJP is not able to completely free itself from nepotism. Similarly, the main opposition parties are clearly paying the price of nepotism.

The BJP is attacking the opposition by calling them family based parties and giving the example of the same family inheriting the top posts of the organization and the government.

So the opposition leaders too are now alleging there are too many members of the family of many BJP leaders like MPs, MLAs, chiefs or District Panchayat Presidents coming from the same family.

Samajwadi Party: The Yadav family ruled the roost till 2009 elections. But after the entry of Narendra Modi in 2014, its family started to get less importance.

In 2014 polls, Mulayam Yadav won from 2 seats while Akshay Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and Dimple Yadav won but in 2019 elections Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son could win .

In 2024 polls, four persons from the Yadav clan had been announced to contest the elections including Dimple Yadav from Manipuri, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, Shivpal Yadav or his son Aditya from Badaun and Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh. Now there is a possibility that the fifth member either Akhilesh Yadav or his cousin Tej Pratap Singh ,who is also the son- in- law of RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav could contest from Kannauj.

Congress: Till the last 2019 elections, Sonia Gandhi was the candidate from Rae Bareli seat of UP and Rahul Gandhi was the candidate from Amethi. But after Rahul lost the last election and won from Wayanad in Kerala , now there is less hope that Rahul will return to Amethi. Sonia Gandhi of Congress had won the Rae Bareli seat in the 2019 election but this time she has been elected to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan just before the Lok Sabha polls.

Many Congress leaders have been urging Rahul and Priyanka to contest elections from these seats. But they are not able to make up their mind to contest elections from UP. After decades, the Gandhi family of Congress is almost out of the field of UP.

Bharatiya Janata Party: Rajbir Singh, alias Raju Bhaiya, MP from Etah is the son of former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. This time again he has been made the candidate from Etah. Raju Bhaiya’s son Sandeep Singh is the state Basic Education Minister in the state government. Raju Bhaiya’s wife Premlata Verma has also been an MLA.

Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh is a veteran BJP leader and MP from Lucknow. Once again he is the candidate from Lucknow. His elder son Pankaj Singh is MLA from Noida.

Union Minister Kaushal Kishore is BJP MP from Mohanlalganj. His wife Jayadevi is MLA from Malihabad.

BSP’s Ambedkar Nagar MP Ritesh has left the party and joined BJP. BJP has made its candidate. Ritesh’s father former MP Rakesh Pandey is a sitting SP MLA.

Kirtivardhan Singh, BJP MP from Gonda ,is the heir to the Mankapur royal family. His father Kumber Anand Singh was also an MP, MLA and minister.

Bahujan Samajwadi Party: BSP supremo Mayawati was seen repeating for years that her political successor would not be from the family. But, ignoring this, she declared his nephew Akash Anand as his successor. Mayawati has handed over the important responsibility of National Vice President to her brother Anand Kumar. However, there is currently no indication of anyone from Mayawati’s family contesting in this election.

Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) led by State Panchayati Raj Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has an alliance with BJP for the Lok Sabha elections. SBSP has got the only Ghosi seat of Lok Sabha under the alliance and Rajbhar has made his son Dr. Arvind Rajbhar , candidate from there. His second son, Arun Rajbhar, has been made the national general secretary and chief spokesperson of the party.

Apna Dal-S: BJP’s another ally Apna Dal S is headed by Union Minister Anupriya Patel. After the Centre, when it came to stake in the state government, her husband Ashish Patel was given a cabinet minister post in the Yogi Adityanath government.

Krishna Patel, mother of Anupriya Patel, leader of Apna Dal Kamerawadi , when got the opportunity, she first promoted her elder daughter Pallavi Patel .Pallavi was successful in becoming MLA by forming an alliance with SP in the 2022 assembly polls.

Rashtriya Lok Dal( RLD): The family of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh is considered to be the most influential political family of Western UP. After Chaudhary Charan Singh,his son Chaudhary Ajit Singh took it forward by forming Rashtriya Lok Dal. Now Ajit’s son Chaudhary Jayant Singh is leading the party. Jayant is part of NDA.

NISHAD Party: Sanjay Nishad, minister in the UP government, is in NDA. When he got a chance to join the state government, he became a minister himself. To promote his sons, he accepted the ticket on the BJP symbol. He has been successful in making elder son Praveen Nishad as MP (Santkabirnagar) and younger son Sarwan Nishad as MLA (Chaurichaura).

Hassan Family (Kairana): The political influence of Hassan family on Kairana seat is well known. Munawwar Hasan was MP from SP and his wife Tabassum Hasan was MP from BSP. Son Nahid Hasan is MLA from Kairana. Now Munawwar’s daughter Iqra Hasan has entered politics. She is an SP candidate from Kairana.

Azam family: Former minister Azam Khan has been an MLA and MP and his wife Tajin Fatma has been an MP. Son Abdullah Azam also became MLA. This time he is in jail and out of the election field.

Harishankar Tiwari: Late Harishankar Tiwari also had dominance in Gorakhpur for a long time. He himself was an MLA and a minister. Elder son Bhishma Shankar was MP and younger son Vinay Shankar Tiwari was MLA. Both this time are trying for MP tickets from SP.

Mukhtar Family: There has been a lot of discussion about the political influence of mafia Mukhtar Ansari in Purvanchal. Many stories are coming to light after his death. This family has a rich political heritage. There have been freedom fighters, patriotic soldiers and even Vice Presidents in the family. But, after Mukhtar entered politics, the image of the family changed. There are still two MLAs and MPs in this family.

Mukhtar Ansari Former MLA, Afzal Ansari MP (Brother), Abbas Ansari MLA (Son), Suhaib alias Mannu Ansari MLA (Nephew- Son of Former MLA Sibatullah Ansari).

Brijesh Family: The political hold of Brijesh Singh, another famous mafia of Purvanchal, is well known. Udaynath Singh alias Chulbul has been an MLC of BJP . But after Brijesh entered politics, the image of the family changed. He was portrayed as a staunch rival of Mukhtar Ansari. Brijesh Singh is the former MLC while his wife Annapurna Singh is MLC while Sushil Singh his nephew is MLA.

Brajbhushan Family: Brajbhushan Sharan Singh had been elected MP for six times. When he was in jail, his wife Ketaki Singh became an MP. Apart from BJP, he has also been an MP from SP. For the first time, after the allegations related to exploitation of women wrestlers, they have faced the problem of tickets. Son Prateek Bhushan Singh is MLA from Gonda Sadar.

Swami Prasad family: Former minister Swami Prasad Maurya, in his ambition to take the family forward, had joined SP after BSP and BJP . Daughter Sanghamitra Maurya and son Utkarsh remained busy in taking it forward. While in BJP, Sanghamitra was given ticket from Badaun and she became MP. While in BSP, he got an MLA ticket for his son but lost. This time the daughter’s ticket got ruined and he too has left SP and formed her own party.

However this time BJP denied ticket to Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit but fielded his mother Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur.