UP: Mayawati names candidates against Modi, Mulayam

Lucknow, March 20: The

(BSP) supremo

on Thursday announced that her party will contest for all parliamentary seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

While addressing media-persons in Lucknow, Mayawati released the list of all candidates for 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Veteran leader Akbar Ahmed 'Dumpy' will be BSP's candidate against Union minister Beni Prasad Verma in Gonda.

Mayawati said the party has fielded slain bandit queen Phoolan Devi's husband Ummed Singh "Kashyap" from Shahjahanpur.

Names of candidates with criminal background also feature in the list.

Pawan Pandey, having criminal history, has been fielded against BJP's Varun Gandhi from Sultanpur, while Jitendra Singh alias Babloo, involved in an incident of arson at Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi's house, has been announced as candidate from Faizabad seat.

Taking on some prominent names, former minister Jaiveer Singh has been fielded from Farrukhabad against Congress' Salman Khurshid while Vijay Prakash Jaiswal will be contesting against BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi from Varanasi.

Sanghmitra Maurya, daughter of party's senior leader and former state unit president Swami Prasad Maurya, and Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali have been fielded against Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri and Azamgarh seats respectively.

BSP has given tickets to two relatives of former minister Ramvir Upadhaya. His wife Seema Upadhyay has been renominated from her sitting constitutency Fatehpur Sikri from where RLD has fielded Amar Singh, while his brother Mukul Upadhaya will contest from Ghaziabad.

She herself is expected to contest from Lalgunj in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The former UP chief minister Mayawati, who has for long maintained that her party will go alone in LS polls today said that she won't forge an alliance with any national party and prefer to go alone in the poll fray.

Instead, she stressed that non-BJP and non-Congress government should be formed at the Centre.

"This time we have given 15 tickets to people from backward classes, 19 to Muslims, 21 to Brahmins, 8 to Kshatriyas to ensure proper representation from all communities in the ticket distribution process", the Dalit icon said.

OneIndia News

(With PTI inputs)