Maurya who quit BJP not to conest from 2017 seat

New Delhi, Feb 01: Swami Prasad Maurya who quit the BJP last month and joined the Samajwadi Party will contest from the Kushinagar seat instead of the Padrauna assembly constituency which he had represented last time.

Maurya who joined the BJP after quitting the BSP in 2016 will be up against the Surendra Kushwaha of the BJP.

Aparna Yadav, daughter in law of Samajwadi Party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav who recently joined the BJP was not part of the list of candidates announced for all the nine Lucknow seats. BJP leader Rita Bahugana Joshi's son Mayank Joshi was also not on the list.

Rajeshwar Singh former Enforcement Directorate officer whose voluntary retirement was accept was given the BJP ticket from the Sarojini Nagar seat. Swati Singh, ministering the UP government and her husband Dayashankar Singh were both expecting to get the seat.

The Cantonment seat has been given to Brijesh Pathak. This is a safe seat for the BJP and Joshi had defeated Aparna Yadav here in the previous elections. In the previous elections, the BJP had won 8 of the 9 seats in Lucknow. Another leader to get a ticket is Ashutosh Tandon. He would contest from Lucknow East.Rajneesh Gupta will fight from the Lucknow Central seat.

Elections will be held in UP in seven phases starting February 10 and counting of votes will take place on March 10.