Lucknow: Ending days of speculation, the BJP announced its candidates on eight out of nine bypoll-bound assembly seats in UP on Thursday.
The BJP also managed to get Mithilesh Pal, a party functionary, contest from Meerapur though on an RLD ticket. The last date of filing nomination is on Friday and polling will be held on Nov 13.
The party categorically junked its ally Nishad party's demand for two seats -- Katehari and Manjhawan.It also fielded a member of Yadav family from the SP's first family's pocket borough, Karhal, which was vacated by Akhilesh Yadav after becoming an MP. TOI was the first to report on Aug 7 about the possibility of Anujesh being fielded from Karhal.
Of the nine seats, four were won by Samajwadi Party (Karhal, Kundarki, Katehari and Sisamau), three by BJP (Ghaziabad, Khair and Phulpur) and one each by Nishad Party and RLD – Manjhawan and Meerapur, respectively -- in 2022 assembly elections.
Significantly, out of eight BJP candidates, four are from the OBC community, two are Brahmins while one each happens to come from Thakur and Dalit background. The relative higher weightage to OBC in the by polls swung the spotlights on BJP's renewed attempt to galvanize the backward caste community which plays the major role in deciding the electoral fortunes of any political outfit.
The party decided to field Anujesh Yadav, the brother-in-law of SP MP Dharmendra Yadav, from Karhal. Dharmendra happens to be a cousin of Akhilesh and the move will lead to a Yadav versus Yadav contest in Karhal, the high profile seat in Mainpuri, inarguably the epicentre of Yadav politics in the region. SP has fielded Akhilesh's nephew Tej Pratap from the seat.
Anujesh and his wife Sandhya, the former Zila Panchayat president from Mainpuri, had switched over to BJP in 2017. This was after SP members brought in a no-confidence motion against Sandhya, amid rumours of her and Anujesh hobnobbing with the saffron outfit. In 2021, she contested zila panchayat member election on BJP ticket but lost to SP's Pramod Kumar.
The party announced the candidature of Ramvir Singh, a Thakur, from Kundarki, the Muslim dominated seat in Moradabad. Singh, the former district general secretary, contested from the same seat in 2012 and 2017 UP assembly election but lost to Mohammad Rizwan of SP on both the occasions. Before that in 2007, he contested from Moradabad Dehat but lost to SP's Usmanul Haq by a margin of around 3000 votes.
In Ghaziabad, the BJP has fielded its district president Sanjiv Sharma, a Brahmin, from the seat that fell vacant following the election of BJP MLA Atul Garg to Lok Sabha. Sharma will debut from the seat which otherwise has been a stronghold of the BJP in the past.
Likewise, it has announced the candidature of Surendra Diler from Khair, the reserved seat in Aligarh district, where the bypoll has been necessitated following election of BJP MLA Anup Valmiki from Hathras. Surendra, a Valmiki Dalit, is the son of former BJP MP from Hathras, Rajvir Diler who passed away in April earlier this year.
Same is the case with Phulpur assembly, where the BJP has fielded its former Phulpur MP Keshari Devi Patel's son Deepak Patel. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP replaced Keshari with Pravin Patel, who eventually went on to win the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.
In the case of Katehari assembly seat, the BJP has fielded Dharmaraj Nishad, a BSP turncoat who joined the saffron outfit just before 2022 assembly elections. Nishad has been a three time BSP MLA – in 1996, 2002 and 2007 – from the seat. He was also a minister in the previous Mayawati govt (2007-2012).
In 2012, Mayawati shifted him to Shahganj assembly seat in Jaunpur which he lost to SP's Shailendra Yadav aka 'Lalee' by a margin of over 10,000 votes. His candidature, not surprisingly, underlined BJP's renewed bid to consolidate the Nishad community which has a significant presence in the constituency.
The BJP announced the candidature of Suchismita Maurya from Majhawan, the seat which fell vacant following election of Nishad party MLA Vinod Bind to Lok Sabha from Bhadohi. Suchismita won from Majhawan seat in 2017 assembly elections, defeating Ramesh Bind of BSP by a margin of nearly 42,000 votes.
In Sishamau assembly seat, where the bypoll has been necessitated following conviction of SP MLA Irfan Solanki in a criminal case, the BJP announced the candidature of Suresh Awasthi. Awasthi had contested from Sishamau in 2017 but lost to Solanki by a margin of around 5000 votes. In 2022, the BJP fielded him from Aryanagar seat in Kanpur but he lost to SP's Amitabh Bajpai by a margin of around 8,000 votes.