Last month, former Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who left the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to join the Samajwadi Party (SP), will be in Kushnagar. Kushinagar’s Fazilnagar seat instead of his stronghold Padrauna for the upcoming state assembly election. The SP leader is the current MLA from Padrauna, also in Kushingar, who has held the seat since 2007 for a total of four consecutive terms.

Maurya’s name is on the SP’s new list of candidates, which consists of three names the party unveiled on Wednesday. Apart from the now former state labour minister, the party led by Akhilesh Yadav has also announced Abhishek Mishra from Lucknow’s Sarojini Nagar seat and Pallavi Patel from Kaushambi’s Sirathu.

This means that Maurya, who joined the BJP from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2016, will face off against the ruling party’s Surendra Kushwaha, the son of current BJP MLA Ganga Singh Kushwaha.

Patel, the sister of federal minister and BJP ally Anupriya Patel, will face Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya. Meanwhile, Mishra will challenge to opt for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) and join BJP’s former Enforcement Directorate (ED) co-director Rajeshwar Singh.

Swami Prasad Maurya, from Padruna, is widely expected to face former federal minister RPN Singh, who left Congress on January 25 and joined the BJP on the same day. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Singh defeated Maurya from the Kushinagar parliamentary seat.

Uttar Pradesh will vote in seven phases starting February 10, with vote counting to take place on March 10. Rounds 2-7 will be held on February 14th, 20th, 23rd, 27th, March 3rd and 7th.

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times