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This story is from February 7, 2022

SP fields late BJP vice-president's widow against Yogi in Gorakhpur

SP fields late BJP vice-president's widow against Yogi in Gorakhpur
LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party on Monday pitted Subhavati Shukla, wife of former BJP state vice president late Upendra Dutt Shukla, as party candidate against chief minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur (Urban) seat. In all, SP released the names of 24 candidates on Monday.
On the caste equations, the party has fielded six Brahmins, two Thakurs, two Muslims, one Bhumihar, nine OBCs, including three Yadavs, and three Dalits.
1x1 polls

Subhavati Shukla formally joined the Samajwadi Party on January 20 setting off speculations that she would be the party’s choice to take on Yogi. Her husband Upendra Dutt Shukla, a well-known Brahmin face in Purvanchal, had lost the Lok Sabha by-election from Gorakhpur in 2018 when the seat was vacated by Yogi. Shukla passed away in May 2020 after an illness. Pravin Nishad, the son of NISHAD Party chief Sanjay Nishad, contested on the Samajwadi Party ticket and won the bypoll. NISHAD party is now an alliance partner of the BJP and Pravin is a BJP MP from Khalilabad.
Sources said initially the Shukla family was keen on contesting from the seat on a BJP ticket. However, on January 17, the party finalised the name of Yogi Adityanath as the candidate from Gorakhpur Urban. Three days later, Subhavati formally joined the SP. SP poll strategists are of the view that Subhavati would get voters' sympathy as the family was denied a ticket. Besides, the caste equation was expected to favour her.
The party has also fielded former minister Narad Rai from Ballia (Urban) to take on BJP state vice president Daya Shanker Singh whose candidature was declared on Sunday. The name of Akhilesh Yadav as the candidate from the Mubarakpur assembly constituency in Azamgarh created a flutter in the political circles till it was confirmed that the individual is a namesake of the SP national president. He had contested two assembly elections in the past as well though failed to make it to the state Assembly. The party has also fielded one Abdul Kalam from the Khalilabad assembly seat in Sant Kabir Nagar.

The list names three turncoats – sitting Apna Dal MLA RK Verma from Raniganj in Pratapgarh, BSP MLA Sushma Patel in the fray from Madiyahon in Jaunpur and BJP’s HN Patel from Sagri in Azamgarh. The three had joined SP in the recent past. The party has also fielded Kishan Dixit, who has been associated with the SP through its frontal organisation Yuvjan Sabha and hails from the family of priests associated with Maha Mritunjay Mahadeo temple in Kashi. He is in the fray from Varanasi South.
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