BJP announces candidates for upcoming by-polls; Tripura CM to fight from Town Bordowali

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced the list of candidates that will fight the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly by-polls.

The Central Election Committee of the saffron party announced Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Dinesh Lal Yadav “Nirahua” and former Samajwadi Party (SP) MLC Ghanshyam Lodhi as its candidate from Azamgarh and Rampur, respectively for the upcoming Lok Sabha by-polls in Uttar Pradesh. Notably, Azamgarh and Rampur seats which fell vacant after the resignation of former CM Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan, respectively, are considered to be the stronghold of the Samajwadi party. 

For the assembly by-polls in Tripura, BJP has announced Chief Minister Manik Saha's nomination for the Town Bordowali seat. It is pertinent to mention that on May 15, Manik Saha took the oath as the 11th CM of Tripura after BJP asked the former CM Biplab Deb to resign.

For the Agartala assembly seat, the party has announced the name of Dr Ashok Sinha and for the reserved seat of Surma, the party announced the candidature of Swapna Das Paul. Malina Debnath is the BJP's candidate for the Jubarajnagar seat.

In a bid to spread its presence in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the BJP has chosen Gundlapalli Barath Kumar Yadav as its candidate for the Atmakur assembly by-poll. For Delhi's Rajinder Nagar seat, Rajesh Bhatia will be the candidate of the saffron party. The party has announced the name of Gangotri Kujur as the candidate for the assembly seat of Jharkhand's Mandar.

BJP's 8 Rajya Sabha candidates elected unopposed

Eleven members of the Rajya Sabha, including eight from the BJP, were elected unopposed from Uttar Pradesh. The eight BJP leaders, who were elected, are Laxmikant Bajpai, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, Surendra Nagar, Dr K Laxman, Mithilesh Kumar, Baburam Nishad, Sangeeta Yadav and Darshana Singh.

Notably, former Congress party leader Kapil Sibal was elected as an independent candidate and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary was also declared elected. Both of the leaders have been elected with Samajwadi Party's support. Javed Ali of the Samajwadi Party has also been elected.

It is pertinent to mention that from Jharkhand, two candidates were also elected unopposed in the biennial election to fill the two vacant seats for Rajya Sabha from the state. Both the candidates, Aditya Sahu from BJP and Dr Mahua Majhi from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) were elected unopposed to the Upper House.