The BSP on Saturday released a list of 54 candidates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, fielding Khwaja Samsuddin against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Urban constituency.
In its latest list, the Ms. Mayawati-led party has given tickets to seven Muslim candidates.
The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Santosh Tiwari from Fazilnagar Assembly constituency in Kushinagar district. Mr. Tiwari will take on Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate and former BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya.
The BSP has given tickets to Prateek Pandey from Katehari and to Chandra Prakash Verma from Akbarpur. Both constituencies fall under Ambedkarnagar district.
In the 2017 State Assembly elections, BSP's Lalji Verma and Ram Achal Rajbhar had won from Katehari and Akbarpur respectively.
In November last year, Mr. Verma and Mr. Rajbhar joined the SP at a 'Janadesh Maharally' in Ambedkarnagar.
The BSP has fielded its sitting MLA Uma Shankar Singh from Rasra in Ballia.
The party has named Rajendra Singh as its candidate from Chillupar in Gorakhpur. The seat was earlier held by Vinay Shankar Tiwari, who quit the party and joined the SP.
The 54 assembly constituencies for which the BSP announced its candidates cover Ambedkarnagar, Balrampur, Siddharthanagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria and Ballia districts.
These districts will go to polls in the sixth phase of the State Assembly elections on March 3.