Maneka Gandhi, Varun Gandhi swap seats, Rampur goes to Jaya Prada

LUCKNOW: Setting at rest speculation about the candidature of Varun Gandhi and his mother Maneka Gandhi, the BJP swapped their constituencies on Tuesday.
Varun would now contest from Pilibhit while Maneka will be fielded from Sultanpur parliamentary seat. The changes were made in the fresh list of 29 candidates released by BJP on Tuesday. With this, BJP has announced 58 candidates from Uttar Pradesh.BJP also announced the candidature of UP cabinet minister Satyadev Pachauri from Kanpur to replace Murli Manohar Joshi, just hours after the party veteran send out a message to voters that he has been asked not to contest Lok Sabha elections.
The saffron party decided to field another UP minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi from Allahabad. BJP’s decision to field Joshi from Allahabad is seen as an attempt to consolidate the Brahmin vote-bank. A former Congressman, Joshi was mayor of Allahabad in the past.
BJP also fielded actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada, who was inducted into the party on Tuesday, from Rampur. She would be up against senior SP leader Azam Khan. Jaya, who began her political career from Telugu Desam Party, switched over to Samajwadi Party and contested and won from Rampur in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Likewise, SC/ST Commission chairperson Ramashankar Katheria, who was replaced by SP Singh Baghel in Agra has been shifted to the SP stronghold of Etawah reserved seat. The move is seen as BJP attempt to cut into Dalit vote-bank of BSP chief Mayawati, who has stitched an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party. Katheria is a Jatav, a Dalit sub-caste to which Mayawati belongs. BJP also banked on Subrat Pathak to take on SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple in Kannauj.
BJP’s national president of Kisan Morcha and sitting MP from Bhadohi, Virendra Singh Mast, has been moved to Ballia, replacing sitting MP Bharat Singh. This is being seen as move to send out a message to the farming community in eastern UP. The party also denied a ticket to Barabanki MP Priyanka Rawat and instead decided to field Upendra Rawat in her place. The move is seen as an attempt to arrest the rising anti-incumbency against Priyanka Rawat. Upendra will be pitted against Congress’ Tanuj Punia, son of senior Congress leader and bureaucrat-turned-politician P L Punia.
The party also decided to retain UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey to contest from Chandauli and minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha from Ghazipur. Sinha had recently said he was not willing to contest from any other seat other than Ghazipur. The saffron party also retained Lallu Singh from Faizabad and mafia-turned-politician turned Brijbhushan Singh too has been retained from Kaiserganj parliamentary seat.
Also, Kirti Vardhan Singh, son of former UP minister Anand Singh, too has been repeated from Gonda parliamentary seat. Hailing from a royal family, Kirti won the seat twice on a Samajwadi Party ticket before switching over to BJP, just before 2014 Lok Sabha elections and won. Jagdambika Pal, former UP CM and a Congress turncoat who switched over to BJP has been asked to fielded from Domariyaganj parliamentary seat which he won in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.