BJP on Monday announced candidates for three Lok Sabha and an assembly bypoll in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.Upendra Nath Shukla and Kaushalendra Singh Patel will be candidates from prestigious Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies respectively. Bypolls are taking place after resignation of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath (Gorakhpur) and Deputy CP Keshav Prasad Maurya (Phulpur). In Bihar, Araria Lok Sabha bypoll is happening due to death of RJD MP Taslemuddin. Pradeep Singh is the BJP nominee from Araria as party is contesting with JD(U) support with the latter not fielding its candidate. Rinki Pandey is the BJP candidate from Bhabhua assembly segment in Bihar. Bypoll for the four seats will take place on March 11.
This is the first decision announced from the Pary's new office 6, DDU Marg, from where the saffron party started functioning after inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.The Congress on Sunday cleared the names of its 10 candidates, which included that of senior journalist Kumar Ketkar, for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, with party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi to contest from West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress has already announced its support for Singhvi's candidature. Singhvi is representing the party in the Supreme Court in some high-profile cases. The party cleared the names of Amee Yagnik and former Union minister Naranbhai Ratwa from Gujarat, Dhiraj Prasad Sahu from Jharkhand, and Rajmani Patel from Madhya Pradesh. The party has also nominated L Hanumanthaiah, Syed Naseer Hussain and G C Chandrasekhar from Karnataka, while Porika Balram Naik has been nominated to contest from Telangana.