BJP announces candidates for UP Lok Sabha by-polls

The BJP today announced its candidates for the Lok Sabha by-elections next month, fielding seasoned organisational leader Upendra Shukla for Gorakhpur and former Varanasi mayor Kaushalendra Singh Patel for Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The two seats in Uttar Pradesh fell vacant after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya resigned from the Lok Sabha following their appointments last year.

The choice of Shukla is seen as an outreach by the party to Brahmins, who are the largest upper caste community in the state and have been its traditional supporters.


Priests of Gorakhpur-based Gorakhnath temple had been representing the constituency since 1989.

Mahant Avedyanath, its head priest and Adityanath's guru, won it for the first time then on Hindu Mahasabha ticket and later in 1991 and 1996 as a BJP candidate.

Adityanath represented Gorakhpur in the Lok Sabha five times on a trot since 1998 before he took over as chief minister. He became the temple's head priest following his guru's death.

The BJP also announced its candidates in Bihar, naming Pradeep Singh as its nominee for the Araria Lok Sabha by-poll and Rinki Pandey for the Bhabua assembly by-election.

Singh, a former Araria MP, had lost to RJD's Taslimuddin in 2014. The by-elections are scheduled to be held on March 11. Tomorrow is the last day for candidates to file nomination.