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    BJP, rivals prepare for endgame in Uttar Pradesh

    Synopsis

    While the PM is seeking a second consecutive term from Varanasi, the BJP has fielded a few fresh faces too.

    12PTI
    SP president Akhilesh Yadav & BSP chief Mayawati in Mirzapur.
    VARANASI: The 13 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh that are set to go to the polls in the final phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 19 – including prime minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi – are especially crucial for the BJP since the party and its allies won all of these in the 2014 polls.

    Campaigning for these seats ended on Friday evening. While the PM is seeking a second consecutive term from Varanasi, the BJP has fielded a few fresh faces too.

    The BSP-SP-RLD alliance has selected candidates mainly on the basis of social equations, with a nod to the dominant caste factor in the region.

    However, the opposition could not get a prominent face to field against Modi in Varanasi. While the alliance candidate is Shalini Yadav, who is a new face in politics, the Congress has stuck with its former MLA Ajay Rai, who stood third in the 2014 polls behind Modi and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal.

    Ghazipur has a sitting MP, Union minister Manoj Sinha, who is seeking a re-election on the basis of development works initiated by him during his term. But his main opponent, Afzal Ansari, fielded by the opposition alliance, is counting on the combined strength of the traditional supporters of the SP and BSP.

    In Ballia, the SP has denied a ticket to former PM Chandra Shekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar and selected Sanatan Pandey as its nominee, making this the first election in the past four decades when there is no one from the former PM’s family in the fray here.

    In Gorakhpur, which is known as UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s bastion, the BJP has turned to Bhojpuri film actor Ravi Kishan while the opposition alliance nominee is Ram Bhual Nishad. The BJP lost this seat last year in the bypoll – which was necessitated after Adityanath vacated the seat to take up the chief minister’s post – to Praveen Kumar Nishad of the Samajwadi Party.

    Last month, however, Nishad switched to the BJP.

    This phase will also see BJP’s ally Apna Dal’s chief and Union minister Anupriya Patel in the fray in Mirzapur. The BSP-SP-RLD alliance has fielded Ram Charitra Nishad as its nominee against Patel while the Congress candidate is Lalitesh Tripathi.


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