Deal on seats with Apna Dal and Nishad Party done, BJP to release its list of candidates for UP polls today

The meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP took place in Delhi on Thursday where the party finalised candidates for 172 seats.

"At the CEC meeting, a very fruitful discussion took place on 172 seats. We are hopeful of a landslide victory once again," UP deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya told mediapersons after the meeting in Delhi.

The meeting was attended by home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, BJP general secretary BL Santosh, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, the two deputy CMs, Keshav Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, and other state leaders. Nadda, Santosh and a few other leaders joined the meeting virtually.


The BJP election committee of UP has been meeting in Delhi for candidate selection over the last two days. The meeting extended till the wee hours of Thursday. Amit Shah also met allies Nishad Party and Apna Dal leaders and seat sharing was finalised late in the night. The three parties will hold a press conference on Friday to announce the seat sharing and the first list of party candidates.

Sources told ET that Nishad Party is likely to contest in 20 seats while Apna Dal would get 12 seats.

Yogi Adityanath, Keshav Maurya and Dinesh Sharma will be contesting election. Yogi is likely to contest election from Ayodhya while Maurya is likely to contest from Sirathu in Kaushambi. Sharma will contest from one of the seats in Lucknow.