BJP drops six in UP, 4 of them Dalit

Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, March 22

Six MPs, including four Dalits and two women, have been dropped from BJP’s first list of 28 candidates for UP.

The party will field new faces in the four reserved seats of Agra, Shahjahanpur, Mishrikh and Hardoi and Sambhal and Fatehpur Sikri. 

Among the four Dalit candidates replaced are two women, including Union Minister Krishna Raj from Shahjahanpur (reserved). The seat has been allotted to Arun Sagar.

What has surprised many is Agra MP Dr Ram Shankar Katheria, an RSS pracharak and former professor at Agra University, has been dropped. He was Minister of State until he assumed charge as National Commission for Scheduled Castes chief on May 31, 2017.

He had been critical of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) ordinance. 

The list reveals a preference for turncoats. SP Singh Baghel, who replaces Katheira in Agra (reserved), has thrice been Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha MP and then a BSP Rajya Sabha member. He joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections, became an MLC and joined the Yogi Cabinet.

The Hardoi seat has been taken away from Anshul Verma and allotted to two-time MP JP Rawat, who did a ‘ghar wapsi’ last year. Ashok Kumar Rawat, who replaces Anju Bala in Mishrikh, was a BSP MP twice in 2004 and 2009. MP Satyapal Saini has been replaced with Parmeshwar Saini in Sambhal. In Fatehpur Sikri, Raj Kumar Chaher replaces Chaudhary Babu Lal. Strangely, Unnao MP Sakshi Maharaj,  who has been in the news for the wrong reasons, has been trusted with another term. 

Another controversial MP on the list, Raghav Lakhanpal, was booked for “ransacking” the residence of Saharanpur SSP in April 2017. 

Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjeev Balyan, an accused in the 2013 riots, has been retained too. So has Sanghmitra Maurya from Badaun. 

In Amethi, Smriti vs Rahul again 

Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, who had challenged Rahul Gandhi in his Amethi bastion in 2014, will again cross swords with him from the high-profile constituency in the coming General Election.

In the last Lok Sabha polls, Rahul had defeated Irani by a margin of over one lakh votes. However, his victory was far less impressive than in most earlier Lok Sabha elections in Amethi as his vote share dipped drastically.

Those replaced in 2019 contest

• Dr RS Katheria, ex-Hindi professor at Agra varsity, had opposed SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) ordinance, which he feared could be misused. Replaced by SP Singh Baghe in Agra (reserved)
• Anshul Verma dropped for Hardoi (reserved). Two-time MP Jai Prakash Rawat, who did a ‘ghar wapsi’ last year, gets ticket
• Anju Bala in Mishrikh (reserved) replaced by Ashok Kumar Rawat. he was BSP MP twice in 2004 and 2009
• MP Satyapal Saini replaced with Parmeshwar Saini from Sambhal  
• In Fatehpur Sikri, Chaudhary Babu Lal replaced by RK Chaher 
• Minister K Raj replaced by Arun Sagar in Shahjahanpur (reserved)