Parivar members of top leaders figure in UP BJP list

NEW DELHI: Off-springs of several leaders, including home minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj, as well as new entrants to the party figure in the second list of BJP candidates, comprising 155 names, that was declared after much-delay here on Sunday.

Those first time candidates who belong to political families include Pankaj Singh (Noida); Mriganka Singh (Kairana), daughter of LS MP Hukum Singh; Utkarsh Maurya (Unchhahar), son of SP Maurya who defected from the BSP; Ashutosh Tandon Gopalji (Lucknow East), son of Lalji Tandon; and Pratik Bhushan (Gonda), son of Kaiserganj MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Prominent names in the list include BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh (Allahabad West), Garima Singh (Amethi), estranged wife of Congress leader Sanjay Singh; former BSP MP Brajesh Pathak (Lucknow Central), former Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi (Lucknow Cantt) and Neeraj Bora (Lucknow North).

Party UP unit spokesperson Hridayanarain Dikshit (Bhagwant Nagar), Anupama Jaiswal (Bahraich), vice-president UP Mahila Morcha; Shailu Singh (Gaisdi), former student leader, have also been given a ticket.

Sunil Verma (Laharpur) and Kuldip Sengar (Bangarmau) had recently joined the BJP.

The list includes several candidates from the OBC and EBC category, a section that the BJP has been wooing ahead of the UP polls.

Though the BJP Central Election Committee met on January 19 to finalise candidates for UP, the names were declared four days later reportedly as NDA partners Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) have been bargaining hard for more seats. In all, BJP has declared candidates for 304 seats till now.