Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mayawati on Sunday announced the names of 16 candidates for Lok Sabha polls.
Yesterday , Congress too had released its first list of 9 candidates for UP with selecting UP Congress President Ajay Rai to contest against PM Modi for the third time from Varanasi.
The BSP candidates in the list covers all the constituencies which will go to polls in the first and second phase of polling.
In this list, BSP has given tickets to seven Muslim candidates. In this, Majid Ali has been fielded against Imran Masood of SP-Congress alliance on Saharanpur seat.
BSP’s Shripal Singh will face Iqra Hasan of SP from Kairana Lok Sabha seat.
Dara Singh Prajapati (BSP)will be in the fray from Muzaffarnagar seat and Vijender Singh from Bijnor. Surendra Pal Singh from Nagina (SC) has got ticket from BSP.
Mohammad Irfan Saifi has been made the candidate from Moradabad while Zeeshan Khan will contest from Rampur seat.
Shaulat Ali has been fielded from Sambhal Lok Sabha seat by BSP while party has made Mujahid Hussain its candidate from Amroha Lok Sabha seat where he will face BJP’s Kanwar Singh Tawar and SP-Congress alliance’s Danish Ali.
The BSP candidates of 16 seats are: Majid Ali from Saharanpur, Shripal Singh from Kairana,Dara Singh Prajapati from Muzaffarnagar, Vijendra Singh from Bijnore,Surendra Pal Singh from Nagina (SC) and Mohammad Irfan Saifi from Moradabad.
Others are Zeeshan Khan in Rampur, Shaulat Ali in Shambhal,Mujahid Hussain from Amroha, Devvrit Tyagi from Meerut, Praveen Bansal from Baghpat, Rajendra Singh Solanki from Gautam Buddha Nagar ,Girish Chandra Jatav from Bulandshahr (SC), Abid Ali from Aonla, Anees Ahmed Khan alias Phoolbabu from Pilibhit and Dr. Dodram Verma from Shahjahanpur (SC).
Last night, Congress had also declared candidates for nine of the 17 Lok Sabha seats it would contest under the INDI alliance in UP.
In this, stakes have been placed on two Dalit, two Muslim and five general category candidates. The OBC class is completely missing in the list of Congress advocating the participation of backward people. The women have also not got any ticket so far.
Of the party’s nine candidates, three have joined the party only a few days ago. There are no names of candidates from Amethi and Rae Bareli in the first list. In Varanasi Congress has once again placed a bet on state president Ajay Rai. He contested elections from here on SP ticket in 2009 and Congress ticket in 2014 and 2019 and stood third all three times.
In Saharanpur seat ,Imran Masood, the candidate from here, is an old Congressman and has been a former municipal chairman and MLA. He stood second on the Congress ticket in 2014 and third in 2019.
Outgoing BSP MP Danish Ali will contest Amroha seat on Congress ticket this time.
In Bansgaon seat Sadal Prasad,is the candidate who was a cabinet minister in the BSP government, contested on the BSP ticket in 2014 and 2019 and stood second both the times.
In Barabanki, Tanuj Punia, son of former Rajya Sabha member PL Punia, has been given a chance from here. He has contested elections from Zaidpur assembly constituency in 2022 on Congress ticket while in Deoria, Akhilesh Pratap Singh, ex MLA from Rudrapur Assembly constituency, is an old leader of the party.
In Kanpur, Alok Mishra, the candidate from here, is also among the old leaders of the party. He has contested elections from Kalyanpur assembly constituency in 2002 and 2007. His wife Vandana has contested the mayor’s election on Congress ticket.
Pradeep Jain Aditya,is the candidate from Jhansi. He was elected MP in 2009 and was the Minister of State for Rural Development in the Manmohan Singh government, but had to face defeat in 2014.
In Fatehpur Sikri, Retired army man Ramnath Sikarwar has contested the assembly elections in the year 2022. He has joined Congress only a few days ago.
Agencies

Agencies