Ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday, 1 February, fielded former Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer Rajeshwar Singh from the Sarojini Nagar seat.
The announcement of Singh's candidature comes merely a day after his voluntary retirement application was accepted by the ED's joint director.
The BJP on Tuesday night announced its candidates for all nine seats of the capital city of Lucknow.
Recent BJP joinee Aparna Yadav, daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Yadav, was not named among the candidates. Yadav and BJP MP Ritu Bahuguna Joshi's son Mayank had both been vying for the Lucknow Cantonment seat, which has been given to state minister Brijesh Pathak.
Yadav had been defeated by Joshi to the high profile seat in the 2017 Assembly polls.
State minister Ashutosh Tandon will be contesting the elections from Lucknow East.
Maneesh Rawat, who switched over from Samajwadi Party to BJP this month, has been given a party ticket from Sidhauli.
Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit was denied a ticket, as the veteran leader has crossed 75 years of age.
A full list of the candidates named on Tuesday night is as follows:
Shashank Trivedi - Maholi
Rakesh Rathore "Guru" - Sitapur
Maneesh Rawat - Sidhauli
Ashutosh Shukla - Bhagwantnagar
Jaya Devi - Malihabad
Yogesh Shukla - Bakshi Kaa Talab
Rajrajeswar Singh - Sarojini Nagar
Anjini Shrivastav - Lucknow West
Dr Neeraj Bora - Lucknow North
Ashutosh Tandon 'Gopal' - Lucknow East
Rajneesh Gupta - Lucknow Central
Brijesh Pathak - Lucknow Cantt
Amaresh Kumar - Mohanlal Ganj
Amarpal Maurya - Unchahar
Rajendra Patel - Jahanabad
Chandraprakhas Mishra Matiyari - Gauriganj
Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay - Chitrakoot
The BJP had won eight out of the nine seats in Lucknow in the last state elections.
Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in seven phases, beginning 10 February. Lucknow will cast its votes on 23 February.
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