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Lok Sabha polls 2019: BSP tries to balance castes in first list

NEW DELHI: Bahujan Samaj Party’s first list of 11 candidates for UP has Lok Sabha in-charges as party candidate, as per the party tradition.

However, in Aonla and Amroha, the party has fielded new candidates. In Amroha, BSP has fielded Danish Ali, who was with the JDS and joined the party only last week. He will challenge BJP MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar.



In Aonla, BSP has fielded former Bijnor SP MLA Ruchi Veera, where a sizeable voters belong to the Vaishya community. Veera had joined the BSP in January and was in-charge of Bijnor. However, the party later replaced her with Iqbal Thekedar, who was tipped to be the BSP candidate in Bijnor. Thekedar lost the ticket in the last moment to Malook Nagar. Party insiders said that since BSP has Muslim candidates in Saharanpur and Amroha, Thekedar was replaced to balance the caste equation in western UP.

Gurjars have good population in several seats in UP. In Bijnor, Gurjars roughly account for 1 lakh votes. BSP is banking on five lakh Muslims and three lakh Dalit votes and a Gurjar candidate to build an unbeatable caste equation.

In Sharanpur, Haji Fazlur Rahman will be the BSP candidate to take on BJP MP Raghav Lakhanpal and Imran Masood of the Congress. BSP has fielded Girish Chandra in Nagina. Chandra had come third in 2014, behind BJP and SP in 2014. In Agra, BSP has fielded Manoj Sonia, who contested from Hathras in 2014 and was the runner-up. Since Hathras has gone to the SP, Soni has been shifted to Agra.

In Fatehpur Sikri, BSP has fielded Rajveer Singh after Seema Upadhyay, the likely candidate who won the seat in 2009, defeating Congress leader Raj Babbar, refused to contest. Seema is the wife of senior BSP leader Ramveer Upadhyay.

Rajveer Singh is a Delhi-based marble trader born in Rajasthan, who has been in BSP for long. It has fielded Satbir Nagar in Gautam Buddh Nagar against Union minister Mahesh Sharma, Yogesh Verma in Bulandshahr, Ajit Balyan in Aligarh and Haji Mohammad Yakoob in Meerut.

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