20 Mar : BSP chief Mayawati on Friday released the list of party candidates for all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and announced that she would launch her nationwide campaign from Kerala on Saturday.
At least eight candidates with known criminal background have been given Lok Sabha tickets by BSP chief Mayawati who has fielded party hoppers in over a quarter of the 80 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
While Arun Kumar Shukla, a history sheeter from Luckow, has been fielded from Unnao, D P Yadav will contest from Badaun.
Others candidates with criminal background include brothers Afzal Ansari (Ghazipur) and Mukhtar Ansari(Varanasi); Bhishm Shankar Tiwari (Sant Kabir Nagar) and Vinay Shankar Tiwari (Gorakhpur)– sons of historysheeter Hari Shankar Tiwari–, Dhanjay Singh from Jaunpur and former MP Rizwan Zaheer from Shravasti.
As many as 20 leaders, who left their parties and joined the BSP ranks recently, figure prominently in the list announced by UP Chief Minister Mayawati in Lucknow on Friday.
Former MLA and minister Naresh Agarwal, once considered a close lieutenant of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, has been fielded from Farukkhabad seat.
Naresh, who won the last assembly election on SP ticket from Hardoi, was appointed as BSP’s national general secretary after he quit SP.
Shahid Siddiqui, who parted ways from the SP over nuclear deal issue, is another turncoat to be obliged by Mayawati. Shafeeq-ur-Rehman Barq, who was the first SP leader to revolt over Mulayam’s bonhomie with Kalyan Singh, has been fielded from Sambhal.
Sitting SP MPs Devendra Singh Yadav has been named as party nominee from Etah and Kirti Vardhan Singh has been fielded from Gonda parliamentary seat, from where he was elected last time as well.
Interestingly, Singh left the SP, after his candidature was announced by the party.
Jai Prakash Rawat, who was elected on SP ticket the last time, has been fielded from Mohanlalganj reserved seat. Another prominent SP leader who found favour with Mayawati is brother of Mukhtar Ansari, Afzal Ansari who was denied a ticket by Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Former SP MLA Arun Shanker Shukla Anna would contest from Unnao.
It is not that the BSP had only given chance to SP turncoats. The party has also obliged leaders of other opposition parties as well.
Shivkant Ojha, a leader hailing from Pratapgarh, was once considered as a BJP stalwart. Having won assembly elections twice on BJP ticket, he enjoyed a cabinet minister rank during Rajnath Singh stint as UP chief minister.
Ojha, has been named as BSP candidate from Pratapgarh parliamentary constituency.
Announcing the list, Mayawati said she would launch her national campaign from Thiruvanathapuram on Saturday and come out with the list of party candidates for rest of the country in four-five days.
Sukhda Mishra, is yet another former BJP leader, who would be contesting Lok Sabha election as a BSP nominee.
A three-time MP and a former minister, Mishra left the party recently to joined BSP and has been named as party candidate from Kanpur parliamentary constituency.
Surendra Nath Awasthi alias Puttu Awasthi, who once enjoyed a good rapport with the BJP national president Rajnath Singh, would be contesting as BSP candidate from Kaisarganj seat.
Puttu was initially associated with the Congress and had won assembly election several times on party ticket from Haidergarh seat.
Later, he vacated the seat for Rajnath Singh, who was seeking election as the Chief Minister.
Akhilesh Das, who is fray for the prestigious Lucknow parliamentary seat as BSP nominee, has his roots in the Congress. Das, who was elected to Rajya Sabha member, was a Minister of State for Steel in the UPA government.
He left the party last year and joined BSP and was given charge as the national general secretary.
Following is the list of Bahujan Samaj Party candidates at 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh as announced by party president Mayawati:
1. Saharanpur Jagdish Singh Rana
2. Kairana Mrs Tabassum Begam
3. Muzaffarnagar Kadir Rana
4. Bijnore Sahid Siddique
5. Nagina(SC) Ram Kishan Singh
6. Moradabad Rajvee Chana
7. Rampur Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi
8. Sambhal Safikur Rahman Wark
9. Amroha Maudod Madni
10. Meerut Malauk Nagar
11. Bagpat Mukesh Sharma
12. Ghaziabad Amar Pal Sharma
13. Gautam Buddha Nagar Surendra Singh Nagar
14. Bulandshhr(SC) Raj Kumar Gautam
15. Aligarh Mrs Raj Kumari Chauhan
16. Hatras(SC) Rajendra Kumar
17. Mathura Shyam Sunder Sharma
18. Agra(SC) Kunwar Chandra Vakil
19. Fatehpur Sikri Mrs Seema Upadhaya
20. Ferozabad S P Singh Baghel
21. Mainpuri Vinay Shakya
22. Etah Devendra Singh Yadav
23. Badaun D P Yadav
24. Aonla Kunwar Sarvaraj Singh
25. Bareilly Islam Sabir Ansari
26. Pilibhit Budhsen Verma
27. Shahjahanpur(SC) Mrs Sunita Singh
28. Kheri Illias Azmi
29. Dhaurhara Rajesh Verma
30. Sitapur Mrs Kaiser Jahan
31. Hardoi(SC) Ram Kumar Kureel
32. Mishrik Ashok Rawat
33. Unnao Arun Shankar Shukla
34. Mohanlalganj(SC) Jai Prakash Rawat
35. Lucknow Akhilesh Das Gupta
36. Rae Bareli R S Shukla
37. Amethi Ashish Shukla
38. Sultanpur Mohammad Tahir
39. Pratapgarh Shivakant Ojha
40. Farrukhabad Naresh Chandra Agarwal
41. Etawah (SC) Gauri Shankar
42. Kannauj Mahesh Chandra Verma
43. Kanpur Mrs Sukhda Mishra
44. Akbarpur Anil Shukla Varsi
45. Jalaun (SC) Tilak Chandra Ahirvar
46. Jhansi Pandit Ramesh Kumar Verma
47. Hamirpur Vijay Bahadur Singh
48. Banda Bhairon Prasad Mishra
49. Fatehpur Mahendra Prasad Nishad
50. Kaushambi (SC) Girish Chandra Pasi
51. Phoolpur Kapilmuni Karvaria
52. Allahabad Ashok Kumar Vajpayee
53. Barabanki (SC) Kamla Prasad Rawat
54. Faizabad Vimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra
55. Ambedkarnagar Rakesh Pandey
56. Behraich (SC) Lalmani Prasad
57. Kaiserganj Surendra Nath Awasthi
58. Shrawasti Rijvan Jaheer
59. Gonda Kirti Vardhan Singh
60. Dumariyaganj Mohammad Mukeem
61. Basti Arvind Chaudhary
62. Sant Kabirnagar Bhishm Shankar Tiwari
63. Maharajganj Ganesh Shankar Pandey
64. Gorakhpur Vinay Shankar Tiwari
65. Kushinagar Swami Prasad Maurya
66. Deoaria Gorakh Prasad Jaiswal
67.Baansgaon (SC) Shrinath Advocate
68. Lalganj (SC) Baliram
69. Azamgarh Akbar Ahmad Dumpy
70. Ghosi Daara Singh Chauhan
71. Salempur Rama Shankar Rajbhar
72. Ballia Sangram Singh Yadav
73. Jaunpur Dhananjay Singh
74. Machlishehar (SC) Kamla Kant Gautam
75. Ghazipur Afzal Ansari
76. Chandauli Kailash Nath Singh Yadav
77. Varanasi Mukhtar Ansari
78. Bhadoi Gorakhnath Pandey
79. Mirzapur Anil Kumar Maurya
80. Robertsganj (SC) Ramchandra Tyagi.