Lucknow:
The BJP on Wednesday announced its 10th list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, with Uttar Pradesh minister Jaiveer Singh Thakur and Samajwadi Party chief Akhil from Mainpuri Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav plays against.
Seven of the nine candidates in the 10th list released by the BJP are from Uttar Pradesh.
In Ballia, it fielded Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister K. Chandra Shekhar. Shekhar has replaced four-term MP Virendra Singh Mast.
In Allahabad, the party rejected the nomination of sitting MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi and announced Neeraj Tripathi as its nominee.
Mr Tripathi is a lawyer and the son of former Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker and former West Bengal Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi.
Incumbent MP BP Saroj from Machhlishahr (SC) has been retained in office. The BJP has also renominated Vinod Sonkar from Kaushambi (SC).
Paras Nath Rai will contest from the BJP from Ghazipur, where Manoj Sinha, the current Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, lost to Pakistan in 2019 Afzal Ansari of the Hujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Afzal Ansari, brother of recently deceased gangster politician Mukhtar Ansari, was the Samajwadi Party candidate from Ghazipur people.
Mr Rai’s son Ashutosh Rai, the state unit chief of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, is believed to be close to Sinha and runs an educational institution in Ghazipur mechanism.
The BJP has fielded Praveen Patel from Purpur.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)