BJP sources said Hukum Singh’s daughter, Mriganka, 57, has emerged as the strongest contender for the Kairana seat.
The BJP is banking on sympathy votes in Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly by-polls as the opposition parties are putting up a united front to wrest the seats. Deaths of BJP lawmakers — Hukum Singh and Lokendra Singh — have necessitated the polls.
BJP sources said Hukum Singh’s daughter, Mriganka, 57, has emerged as the strongest contender for the Kairana seat. “We will go for (a candidate from) the family,” said a BJP leader.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) have fielded Tabassum Hassan as their joint candidate with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s backing to replicate their success in recent by-polls in the state.
Mriganka had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly elections from Kairana. The BJP is planning to capitalise on Hukum Singh’s popularity by fielding her.
The opposition is hoping to consolidate Muslims and Jat votes with Hassan’s candidature on RLD’s ticket. Kairana has about three lakh Muslim voters out of 17 lakh. There are about 1.5 lakh Jatav and around four lakh backward caste voters including Jats and Gujjars in the constituency.
Hukum Singh had won the 2014 Lok Sabha poll from Kairana with 5.65 lakh votes. The SP, BSP and RLD candidates had managed to get over 5.3 lakh votes.
BJP sources said Mriganka was new to politics in 2017 but has since been active in the region and would get sympathy votes.
Sources said the BJP is also planning to field a family member of MLA Lokendra Singh, 41, who died in a road accident. The opposition has fielded Naim-ul-Hassan, 47, who lost to Lokendra Singh in the 2017 election from Noorpur. He got 66,436 votes while Lokendra managed to get 79,172.
“We are in the process of finalising our candidates and would name them soon. A leader of a party (SP) joining another (RLD) just to contest an (Kairana) election would not fool public,” said BJP State General Secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak.