The greatest chunk of seats in the list announced on Saturday evening by the Bharatiya Janata Party has gone to the Other Backward Castes, while general castes make for the second place and Scheduled Castes for the third.
To the first category have gone 20 seats, 19 to the second and 12 to the third.
It is also noteworthy that none of the sitting MPs in the 51 seat list for the state have been denied tickets.
However on seats that the BJP lost, there are new names. Saket Mishra, currently a member of the legislative council, is the party’s candidate from Shravasti. He is the son of Nripendra Mishra, the chairman of the Ram Mandir construction committee.
In Ambedkar Nagar, BSP deserter Ritesh Pandey, who joined the party just a week ago, has been given a ticket. Pandey is a sitting BSP MP. Soon after switching sides, he aired several grievances against the party, including one that he had been sidelined by not being invited to important party meetings despite working tirelessly in his constituency.
Kripa Shankar Singh, former home minister of Maharashtra, has been given a ticket from Jaunpur. Originally from the Congress, he had joined the BJP in 2021.
The fourth new name is Om Kumar who is a two-time MLA from the BJP. He had started his political career from the BSP.
The surprise factor in this list was the retaining of all sitting MPs. However the greater surprise is expected to come in list number two.
There is speculation that among those who will not receive tickets are Varun Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Brij Bhushan, Sharan Singh, Santosh Gangwar and Sanghmitra Maurya.
Denying Singh a ticket will be a challenge for the party because he has the following to win even as an independent. Gangwar’s exclusion will be surprising given that he is extremely popular and accessible to his constituents in Bareilly. Maurya’s exclusion will be a fallout of her father Swami Prasad Maurya’s outlandish statements and also of the recent controversy regarding her marriage.
