UP Election 2022: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released another list of 17 candidates, including all nine seats of Lucknow, and has left out several high-profile contenders. The list did not mention the names of Speaker in the outgoing assembly Hriday Narain Dikshit and minister Swati Singh. The party has also not fielded new entrant Aparna Yadav and Rita Bahuguan Joshi’s son Mayank Joshi.
Sitting Lucknow (central) MLA Brijesh Pathak’s seat has been changed to Lucknow Cantonment, ending speculation that daughter-in-law of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, Aparna Yadav may get a ticket from the seat.
Former director of Enforcement Directorate who has taken voluntary retirement, Rajeshwar Singh has been fielded from the Sarojini Nagar seat, the constituency represented by outgoing minister Swati Singh. Both Swati Singh and her husband Daya Shankar Singh had been vying for the Sarojini Nagar seat.
Ashutosh Shukla has been fielded from the Bhagwantnagar seat in Unnao district from where Hriday Narain Dikshit is the outgoing MLA. According to the BJP’s list, state minister Ashutosh Tandon will contest from his Lucknow east seat.
Other candidates in the list include Shashank Trivedi from the Maholi seat, Rakesh Rathore from the Sitapur seat, Maneesh Rawat from the Sidhauli seat, Jaya Devi from the Malihabad seat, Yogesh Shukla from the Bakshi Kaa Talab seat, Anjani Shrivastav from the Lucknow West seat, Dr Neeraj Bora from Lucknow North, Rajneesh Gupta from Lucknow Central, Amaresh Kumar from Mohanlalganj, Amarpal Maurya from Unchahar, Rajendra Patel from Jahanabad, Chandraprakash Mishra from Gauriganj and Chankdrika Prasad Upadhyay from the Chitrakoot seat.
Now, there are speculations that Mayank Joshi may join the Samajwadi Party after being denied a ticket by the BJP.