BJP fields Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan from Jaunpur, Praveen Nishad from Sant Kabir Nagar in UP

The Bharatiya Janata Party announced a new list of seven candidates for the Lok Sabha elections for the politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh.

Image: Twitter/ @ravikishann

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday announced a new list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections for the politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh. The list contains names of candidates for seven Parliamentary constituencies in the state. The party has fielded popular Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s bastion Gorakhpur. Kishan had already started campaigning in Jaunpur even before the announcement of his name by the party. Kishan, who has a popular fanbase among Bhojpuri speakers and also has reputation in Hindi and Telugu movies, had  joined Indian National Congress (INC) from Jaunpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, and contested in the 2014 general elections where he secured only 42,759 votes or 4.25 per cent of the total votes. In February 2017, Kishan left the Congress Party and joined the BJP Apart from Kishan, Praveen Nishad, son of Sanjay Nishad, founder of the Nishad Party which is now in alliance with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, has been fielded from Sant Kabir Nagar Lok Sabha constituency. Former BJP UP unit chief Ramapati Ram Tripathi will contest from Deoria constituency. The party has fielded sitting MP KP Singh from Jaunpur.  Ramesh Bind will be contesting from Bhadohi, Mukut Bihari from Ambedkar Nagar, and Sangam Lal Gupta will contest from Pratapgarh. This time, the BJP is banking on the popularity of some of Bhojpuri film industry's biggest stars to see it through a clutch of Lok Sabha seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Apart from Ravi Kishan, singer-actor Dinesh Lal Yadav alias 'Nirahua' is contesting elections from Azamgarh seat in eastern UP, while Pawan Singh is expected to contest from seat in West Bengal. Both these seats have Bhojpuri voters. Singh is already in the BJP, while Yadav joined the party on Wednesday in Lucknow in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. All big stars of the Bhojpuri film industry like Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan, Nirahua, Pawan Singh are with the BJP and they will be unstoppable in the elections,"  Mumbai BJP general secretary Amarjeet Mishra had earlier said. Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha,. It is going to polls in all seven phases from April 11 to May 19. The polls will now take place in the state on April 18, 23,29, and May 6,12,19. The counting of votes will be done on May 23.