Contrary to media speculation, the BJP on Friday announced that the incumbent Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath will contest maiden assembly elections from his traditional Gorakhpur city seat.
There were rumours that UP Chief Minister will contest assembly elections either from Mathura or Ayodhya to play Hindu card in the coming polls in the state.
The BJP on Saturday released the names of the candidates contesting in the first and the second phase of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Party has announced that incumbent Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya will contest assembly polls.
The party has announced CM Yogi Adityanath as a candidate from Gorakhpur urban and Keshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu in Prayagraj.
Earlier there were reports that the UP CM will contest either from Mathura or Ayodhaya.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in-charge of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Releases a list of party candidates for the first and second phases of elections.
Yogi to contest first assembly elections
Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, who is a member of the Legislative Council, will first-time contest assembly elections. Earlier he had won successive five Lok Sabha elections from his traditional Gorakhpur Parliamentary seat. Polling for the Gorakhpur (Urban) seat will be held on March 3 - the sixth and penultimate phase.
In today's list the BJP also named candidates for 105 other seats, of which it won 83 in 2017. Out of 83 sitting MLAs, the party has repeated 63 and denied mandates to 20.
Atul Garg from Ghaziabad, Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj Singh from Noida, Prashant Gurjar from Meerapur, Mriganka Singh from Kairana, Shrikant Sharma from Mathura, Sandeep Singh from Atrauli, Vikram Singh Saini from Khatauli, Suresh Rana from Thana Bhawan, Kapildev Agarwal from Muzaffarnagar, Narendra Kashyap from Charthaval, Laxminarayan Choudhary from Chhatra, Umesh Malik from Budhana have been given tickets.
