UP legislative council polls: BJP allocates 4 seats to turncoats, including 2 Thakur

LUKCNOW: The BJP on Sunday announced the names of 10 candidates, including four turncoats and two cabinet ministers, for the UP legislative council elections. The announcement came just a day before the last date of filing nomination.
Given its strength of 324 MLAs in the UP Assembly, the BJP can send 11 candidates.

The ruling party has re-nominated rural development minister Mahendra Singh and minority affairs minister Mohsin Raza. Among the turncoats, three are from the SP (Sarojini Agarwal, Yashwant Singh and Bukkal Nawab) and one from BSP (Jaiveer Singh). Yashwant Singh and Jaiveer had resigned from their seat last year to pave way for Mahendra Singh and Mohsin Raza, respectively. The party decided to send one Dalit, Vidyasagar Sonkar, one OBC, Ashok Kataria and one Brahmin, Vijay Bahadur Pathak.

The party, however, did not announce the name of its 11th candidate, triggering speculations of allotting the berth to its ally Apna Dal.