Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya among 7 UP ministers in BJP list

UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and former minister and OBC leader --high profile candidates who lost their respective contests in the 2022 state elections -- were fielded as MLC candidates by the BJP and SP respectively. Two SP allies expressed their disappointment over not getting MLC seats, with the Mahan Dal chief breaking his alliance with the party over the issue.

Both the BJP and SP announced candidates for the state's upper house. Apart from the deputy CM who lost from Sirathu, Kaushambhi, to Pallavi Patel of Apna Dal (Kameravadi), the BJP has fielded six more ministers including Dyashankar Mishra, Bhupendra Choudhary, JPS Rathore, Jaswant Saini, Danish Ansari and Narendra Kashyap, as well as adjusted Banvarilal Dohare, former MLA from Kannauj, who was replaced by IPS officer Asim Arun as candidate from Kannauj this time, along with Mukesh Sharma.

SP has fielded four candidates, including Swami Prasad Maurya, a minister in the first Yogi government who had quit the party to join the SP before elections, but lost from Fazilnagar in Kushinagar. The other three are Jasmeer Ansari, Mukul Yadav and Shahnawaz Khan. While Mukul Yadav is the son of Sobaran Singh Yadav, four-time MLA from Karhal who was replaced by Akhilesh Yadav as candidate from the constituency in the elections, Khan is the son of a close aide of Azam Khan.