The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda on Monday approved the names of candidates to contest in the Uttar Pradesh legislative council from five constituency seats. The three BJP candidates for graduate constituencies are Jai Pal Singh (Bareilly Moradabad), Arun Pathak (Kanpur-Unnao) and Devendra Pratap Singh (Gorakhpur-Faizabad) constituency, reported news agency ANI.
While from the teachers' constituencies two candidates include Venu Ranjan Bhadauria, the party nominee for the Kanpur-Unnao teachers' constituency and Babulal Tiwari for the Jhansi-Prayagraj constituency.
BJP won in four of the five states that went to Assembly elections last year including Uttar Pradesh while the Aam Aadmi Party swept Punjab. The BJP’s victory, especially in Uttar Pradesh Assembly came as a shot in the arm for the party ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
Going by the results, voters too made their choice between the BJP and the SP (or their respective allies), largely ignoring the BSP and the Congress. The announcement comes ahead of the assembly elections which are a few months away.
Lok Sabha elections are also due in 2024.
This year is crucial in view of the impending Assembly elections to be held in Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh.
Also, in six out of these nine states, the BJP and its allies are in power while the Congress is in power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Telangana is governed by the Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi).
Nadda's three-year term as the party president will also end later this month. However, in view of upcoming elections, his term is being extended.
The BJP national executive is to meet in the capital for two days on January 16-17 in a bid to likely endorse an extension in the party’s national president J P Nadda’s tenure, reported the Indian Express publication citing its sources.