New Delhi: The BJP dropped Wednesday its sitting MP Kirit Somaiya, whose name was opposed by ally Shiv Sena, as its candidate from Mumbai North East and also announced its nominees for the Lok Sabha election against key opposition leaders like Sonia Gandhi of the Congress and Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Akhilesh Yadav.
The BJP has pitted well-known Bhojpuri actor and singer Dinesh Lal Yadav against SP chief Akhilesh from Azamgarh. It has fielded Prem Singh Shakya against Yadav’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri.
For the Rae Bareli seat the BJP has named Dinesh Pratap Singh, a local strongman who had left the Congress to join it last year, as its candidate against Sonia Gandhi. The seat has long been a bastion of the Gandhi family with the former Congress president representing it in Lok Sabha since 2004.
On the Mumbai North East constituency, Shiv Sena had been bitterly opposed to Somaiya’s candidature. And the BJP’s decision to replace him with Manoj Kotak underscores its keenness to keep its Hindutva ally in good humour. Somaiya, an old BJP hand and one of its leading speakers on economic issues in Parliament, had been a trenchant critic of the Sena.
The BJP also named Chandra Sen Jadun as its candidate from Firozabad. The SP had won from Azamgarh, Mainpuri and Firozabad in 2014, with members of its ruling Yadav family emerging victorious.
With the latest list of candidates, the BJP has named its nominees on 383 Lok Sabha seats for the election to 543-member House.
PTI
