Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BSP Changes Jaunpur Candidate, Replaces Srikala Reddy With Shyam Singh Yadav

For the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024, the BSP has changed its Jaunpur candidate Srikala Reddy and decided to field sitting MP Shyam Singh Yadav, party sources said here on Monday. Yadav said he was called by BSP chief Mayawati and asked to contest the poll from Jaunpur. The party had earlier given the ticket to former MP Dhananjay Singh's wife Srikala Reddy.

The MP-MLA court in Jaunpur on March 6 had sentenced Singh and his associate Santosh Vikram to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2020 case of kidnapping and extortion of Namami Gange project manager Abhinav Singhal.

He was lodged in Jaunpur district jail and later shifted to Bareilly jail The Allahabad High Court had on April 27 granted bail to Singh but refused his plea to suspend or stay a seven-year imprisonment sentence passed by the district court.

In Jaunpur, while the BJP has fielded former Maharashtra Minister Kripa Shankar Singh, the SP has fielded Babu Singh Kushwaha, a former BSP minister and an accused in the NRHM scam. Shyam Singh Yadav has won the 2019 polls on a BSP ticket from the seat. Elections in Jaunpur will be held on May 25 in the sixth phase.

Bahujan Samaj Party has decided to go solo in this election, and refused offers to join BJP-led NDA and Opposition's INDIA bloc. The party has emerged as a third prominent option for the people of Uttar Pradesh, and is eyeing to give a strong contest to by fielding local leaders.