The BJP announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will contest the polls from Gorakhpur seat. The party released a list of 105 candidates out of which 68 per cent are from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Schedule Castes (SCs) and also include women.
The BJP’s outreach to the OBC community was quite evident from the list of candidates announced for the first two phases. Forty-four candidates belonging to the OBC category got tickets. Of these, the Jat community got 16 tickets, the Gurjar community got seven tickets, and the Lodhi community got six tickets.
Five tickets were given to the Saini community and two tickets were for the Shakya community. Kashyap, Khadagabanshi, Maurya, Kurmi, Kushwaha, Nishad, Prajapati and Yadav communities were given one ticket each. The party has also given tickets to 40 upper caste candidates. Of these, the Thakur community got 18 tickets, followed by Brahmins with 10 tickets. Eight tickets were given to candidates belonging to the Vaishya community, while the Tyagi and Kayastha communities got two tickets each.
50 women in Cong's first list
Congress has kept its gender representation pledge by including 50 women in its first list of 125 candidates. The candidates include some of those who were at the epicentre of prominent agitations in UP over the past couple of years. “We believe in the politics of development and constructive campaigning, which is not possible till women come forward and join hands for public interest,” said Congree general secretary Priyanka Gandhi while announcing the names.
Apart from known faces like CLP leader Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ (Rampur Khas), former National
Commission for Women member Shamina Shafiq (Sitapur Sadar) and former Union minister Salman Khurshid’s wife Louise Khurshid (Farrukhabad), tickets have been allotted to the mother of the Unnao rape survivor and Ritu Singh, who had been physically stopped from filing her nomination for the panchayat poll last July. The latter has been given the party ticket to contest the Mohammadi seat of Lakhimpur Kheri.
SP, RLD release 1st list
Putting their bet on the belief that farmers’ agitation in western UP has narrowed down the rift between Jats and Muslims created by 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, Samajwadi Party and RLD kept the focus on Jats and Muslims in the first list of 29 candidates that the two parties jointly released.
Apart from trying to bridge the gap between the two communities, the two parties have accommodated at least three turncoats who sided with them recently. They are four-time MLA and Congressman Gajraj Singh who is the RLD candidate from Hapur and BJP MLA Avtar Singh Bhadana who, too, is an RLD.
