Lok Sabha elections 2024: BJP fields UP minister to take on Dimple in Mainpuri, Ex-PM Chandrashekhar's son to contest from Ballia

Of the nine candidates announced by the BJP, seven are from Uttar Pradesh.

Lucknow: Former prime minister Chandrashekhar's son Neeraj Shekhar and UP minister Jaiveer Singh Thakur found mention in BJP's tenth list of seven candidates for Uttar Pradesh, which was released on Wednesday. 

The saffron party has fielded former UP Assembly speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi's son Neeraj Tripathi from Allahabad from where former UP Congress president Reeta Bahuguna Joshi, who had joined BJP on the eve of 2019 LS polls and was the sitting MP.

Neeraj Shekhar replaces sitting MP from Ballia Virendra Singh 'Mast'. A few senior district BJP leaders in Ballia had urged the party leadership not to re-nominate Virendra Singh.

Jaiveer Singh Thakur, who would take on Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav in the latter's stronghold of Mainpuri, is  an MLA from Mainpuri Sadar assembly seat and is the minister for tourism. 

Paras Nath Rai has been fielded from Ghazipur LS seat from where the Samajwadi Party (SP) has nominated Afzal Ansari, the brother of gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari, who died following a cardiac arrest in Banda district jail a few days back. Afzal had won the seat in 2019 LS polls on a BSP ticket but joined the SP recently.

BJP has also replaced its candidate in Phulpur and has fielded Praveen Patel from there. The sitting MP from there Kesri Devi Patel has been denied re-nomination. The seat was a bone of contention between BJP and its alliance partner Apna Dal (Anupriya Patel), which had demanded that it be allowed to field its candidate from there. 

While Vinod Sonekar has been re-nominated from Kaushambi LS seat, the BJP has fielded B.D.Sonekar from Machhlishahr LS seat in Jaunpur district.