LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday announced the candidature of nine leaders, including seven ministers, for UP Legislative Council elections. Two others besides the ministers are Mukesh Sharma and Banwari Lal Dohre. Among the seven ministers are Keshav Prasad Maurya and Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh.
The other five ministers fielded for the upper house are cooperative minister JPS Rathore, Dayashankar Mishra 'Dayalu', Narendra Kashyap, Jaswant Saini and Danish Azad. They were inducted in the Yogi 2.0 cabinet but were not members of either of the two Houses of UP legislature. They all will make debut in the Upper House.
The candidature of deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya has been announced for at least two reasons. One, his tenure in the Council will end soon. Second, it became necessary for him to get elected to the legislative council since he lost the Assembly election from Sirathu in Prayagraj to debutant Pallavi Patel of Apna Dal (K), who was fielded as alliance partner by the Samajwadi party.
Banwari Lal Dohre had lost the 2017 assembly election from Kannauj (reserved constituency) on BJP ticket. BJP's Lucknow Mahanagar chief Mukesh Sharma is considered close to defence minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh.
