The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday declared a list of two candidates for Meerut and Agra. The party has named Atul Pradhan from Meerut and Suresh Chand Kadam from Agra.
The SP had earlier fielded Bhanu Pratap Singh from Meerut. But it changed its candidate for Meerut and announced the name of Atul Pradhan, the sitting MLA from Sardhana.
Meanwhile, BJP has fielded veteran actor Arun Govil of TV serial 'Ramayan' fame from Meerut. Govil, who filed his nomination as the BJP candidate on Tuesday, said it is the beginning of a new innings for him. State BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Party Regional President Satendra Sisodia and outgoing MP Rajendra Aggarwal, were present on this occasion.
Polling in Meerut is scheduled in the second phase (April 26) and in Agra, in the third phase (May 7) of the seven-phase general elections.
Around 15.34 crore people are eligible to vote in Uttar Pradesh -- a politically crucial state with 80 Lok Sabha seats where the elections will be held in seven phases from April 19. Eight parliamentary constituencies in the state will vote in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls on April 19 including Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina (SC), Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit.
SP Replaces Khajuraho Candidate
The Samajwadi Party on Monday also replaced its Khajuraho Lok Sabha candidate Manoj Yadav with former MLA Meera Deep Narayan Yadav.
Meera Yadav will take on Madhya Pradesh BJP chief and sitting MP VD Sharma. The elections on the seat, which is the only one allotted in the state to the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP by the Congress, will take place on April 26.
VD Sharma had won from Khajuraho in 2019 with a margin of more than 4.5 lakh votes. Meera Yadav had won from Niwari assembly seat, which is part of Khajurahao Lok Sabha constituency, on an SP ticket in 2008.