13 ministers, 8 women in BJP's Uttar Pradesh list of 91
The party dropped co-operative affairs minister Mukut Bihari Verma, whose son Gaurav will be contesting from his Kaiserganj seat in Bahraich
New Delhi: The BJP on Friday released a list of 91 candidates for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Prominent names among the list included Cabinet ministers Siddharth Nath Singh, Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi,’ Surya Pratap Shahi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath's media adviser Shalabh Mani Tripathi. The party has fielded 13 ministers and repeated its sitting MLA in Ayodhya, Ved Prakash Gupta. Eight women also made it to the list of candidates.
The party dropped co-operative affairs minister Mukut Bihari Verma, whose son Gaurav will be contesting from his Kaiserganj seat in Bahraich.
While Siddharth Nath Singh will contest from Allahabad West, Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi' will be in the fray from Allahabad South. Mr Shalabh Mani Tripathi has been fielded from Deoria.
Agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi will contest from the Pathardeva constituency.
The other ministers fielded by the party are Suresh Kumar Pasi from Jagdishpur Assembly seat, Rajendra Prasad alias 'Moti' Singh from Patti, Palturam from Balrampur, Rampati Shasti from Mankapur, Jai Pratap Singh from Bansi, Satish Chandra Dwivedi from Itwa, Sriram Chauhan from Khajni, Jaiprakash Nishad from Rudrapur, Upendra Tiwari from Phehana and Girish Chandra Yadav from the Jaunpur Assembly constituency.
Other than these, the party has fielded Nagendra Pratap Singh 'Chhote Sarkar' from Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh, who will contest against Congress Legislative Party leader Aradhana Misra. Mr Misra and UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu are the only two MLAs who are still in the party which had won seven seats in the 2017 Assembly polls.
The BJP has given ticket to Sindhuja Mishra from Kunda, a constituency that frequently hits the headlines because of "bahubali" (muscleman) politician Raghuraj Pratap Singh, alias Raja Bhaiya.
The BJP has also given tickets to Rakesh Sachan from Bhoginipur in Kanpur Dehat and to Subhash Rai from Jalalpur. Mr Sachan had joined the BJP recently after quitting the Congress, while sitting SP MLA from Jalalpur, Subhash Rai, had joined the BJP on January 24.