Uttar Pradesh voters favour only 5 of 8 kin of former CMs and PM

LUCKNOW: The just-concluded Uttar Pradesh polls turned out to be a litmus test for family members of former chief ministers and even of a former prime minister, with the electorate favouring only five of the eight candidates who were in the fray.

In all there were seven candidates, who had direct link with outgoing chief minister Akhilesh Yadav or other former chief ministers. Siddharth Nath Singh, who contested on a BJP ticket from Allahabad West assembly constituency, is the grandson of former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Party-wise, the BJP had fielded five such candidates. They are Rita Joshi from Lucknow Cantonment, Sandeep Kumar Singh from Atrauli, Pankaj Singh from Noida and Siddhartha Nath Singh from Allahabad West. From the Samajwadi Party, there were three such candidates.

They were Shivpal Yadav from Jaswantnagar (brother of former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle of incumbent UP CM Akhilesh Yadav), Aparna Yadav from Lucknow Cantonment (the younger daughter-in-law of Mulayam) and Anurag Yadav (cousin of UP CM Akhliesh Yadav). Apart from this, Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, the great grandson of former UP CM Kamlapati Tripathi, also contested on a Congress ticket from Mariharan assembly constituency.

The candidates who won this time were Rita Bahuguna Joshi, daughter of former UP CM Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna. She defeated Aparna Yadav, Mulayam’s younger ‘bahu’, in the Lucknow Cantonment constituency. Aparna made her debut in electoral politics this year, while the former UP Congress chief Joshi contested on a BJP ticket.

In Atrauli, the bastion of former CM Kalyan Singh, his grandson Sandeep Kumar Singh contested on a BJP ticket and defeated SP’s Viresh Yadav. Pankaj Singh, son of Union home minister and former UP CM Rajnath Singh, who contested from Noida defeated SP’s Sunil Choudhary.