Lucknow: BJP has announced its first list of candidates for 51 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. As names of Maneka Gandhi, her son Varun Gandhi, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Sanghamitra Maurya and General VK Singh, are missing out from the list, there is speculation over whether they would receive tickets or not.
Maneka Gandhi, an eight-term parliamentarian is sitting MP from Sultanpur and three-time MP, Varun Gandhi represents Pilibhit. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is an MP from Kaiserganj and SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya's daughter Sanghamitra Maurya represents Badaun while General VK Singh is MP from Ghaziabad. BJP has not announced candidates for any of these seats.
The party has also not announced candidates for Bijnor, Moradabad, Meerut, Aligarh, Bareilly, Kanpur, Phulpur, Allahabad, Machchlishar, Ballia, Deoria. Firozabad, Saharanpur and a few others.
According to political analysts BJP's silence on the seats of Sultanpur and Pilibhit, represented by Maneka Gandhi and her son respectively may stem from the fact that Varun Gandhi has been vocal against the party several times in the last five years. He had taken a critical stand against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government on many issues in the past. Now, speculations are rife on whether they would at all be given tickets or not for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Similarly suspense runs high over Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and Sanghamitra Maurya not being included in the first list. BJP is silent over former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who came into limelight recently following his tussle with wrestlers.
Similarly, Sanghamitra Maurya hit the headlines over her father's controversial statements and the row over her marriage. It is now to be seen whether these candidates make to the second or subsequent lists issued by the BJP.
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