29 Jan : In an apparent indication of a lack of consensus on several seats, BJP declared a list of 16 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections following a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee at New Delhi.Of the candidates declared, 12 are from Uttar Pradesh, three from Kerala and one from Daman & Diu.With this, the total number of candidates announced by the party for the Lok Sabha polls has reached 52.The BJP candidates from UP are Chaudhary Hukum Singh Gurjar (Kairana), three-time MLA Sarvesh Singh (Moradabad), Aridaman Singh (Sikri), Raghuvar Dayal Verma (Ferozabad), singer Tripti Shakhya (Mainpuri), Krishna Raj (Shahjahanpur- SC), Ajay Mishra Teni (Kheri), Anil Bhargava (Misrikh- SC), Ranjan Chaudhary (Mohanlalganj- SC), Mithilesh Aggarwal (Farrukhabad), Subrata Pathak (Kanauj), Gautam Chaudhary (Kaushambi- SC).
The list indicates that BJP could not reach an understanding with the Rashtriya Lok Dal for Kairana seat on which RLD leader Anuradha Chaudhuri is the sitting MP.
BJP does not have a sitting MP on any these 12 seats, most of which are the stronghold of Samajwadi Party.Shahjahanpur, represented by Congress MP and Minister of State for Steel, Jitin Prasada, is now a reserved seat post-delimitation.
The three BJP candidates from Kerala are K V Sabu (Chalakkudi), P M Velayudhan (Mavelikara- SC) and Thottakkad Sasi (Attingal).Lalubhai Babubhai Patel will be the BJP candidate from Daman & Diu.
BJP has not declared any candidate on Parliamentary seats of Lucknow (Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s constituency) and Eta (from where Kalyan Singh had been announced as a candidate earlier).
"Till now we have declared candidates for 32 Lok Sabha seats from UP. The social combination in the state has been kept in mind while selecting the candidates," Secretary, BJP CEC, Ananth Kumar told reporters at New Delhi on Wednesday.
The saffron party, already in a weak position in UP as it has only nine sitting MPs out of 80 in the state, suffered a further set-back with the exit of former chief minister Kalyan Singh.
Singh, a strong OBC leader from the Lodh community, has a good hold on atleast five constituencies of Western UP where the community has a heavy presence.