BJP denies tickets to three sitting MPs in UP

 Sources said that in place of Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is sitting MP from Allahabad seat, the party has decided to field Neeraj Tripathi, who is son of former Governor and veteran BJP leader Kesari Nath Tripathi.

 Similarly, the party has denied the ticket to the sitting MP from Phulpur seat in Prayagraj district Kesari Devi Patel. In her place the party has pitched in MLA Praveen Pate. BJP MP from Ballia Virendra Singh Mast has also been denied ticket this time.

 In place of Singh, the party has fielded Rajya Sabha member Neeraj Shekhar, who is the son of former Prime Minister Chandrasekar, from Ballia. Neeraj has represented Ballia seat in Lok Sabha twice in the past.

 The by-poll was necessitated due to the demise of sitting MP and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mainpuri is considered to be a bastion of SP.

 The party has repeated sitting MP from Kaushambi Vinod Sonkar for the third time. He had won the seat in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Similarly, BJP has repeated BP Saroj from Machhlishahr seat.

 From Ghazipur seat, the party has fielded first timer Paras Nath Rai. This seat is currently held by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP and Mukhtar Anzari's brother, Afzal Ansari. This time Afzal has been declared a candidate by SP. 

In the 2019 polls, Afzal defeated Manoj Sinha of BJP. It may be noted that BJP has so far declared names of 58 candidates in UP.