No ticket to MP involved in beating MLA, BJP fields father from Deoria

Sharad Tripathi, BJP MP from Sant Kabir Nagar in east UP, has paid the price for beating a party MLA with his footwear as he was denied a Lok Sabha ticket this time.
Tripathi had got into a heated exchange with Rakesh Baghel, a BJP MLA, at a meeting some weeks back. The video of the incident, in which the two are seen exchanging expletives too, caused a lot of embarrassment to the party. According to party sources, BJP’s internal politics is also at play here. Baghel belongs to UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s camp, while Tripathi is not in the best of terms with the CM.

The party brass has tried to placate the MP by fielding his father Ramapati Ram Tripathi from Deoria, which was won by Kalraj Mishra in 2014. Mishra has crossed the 75-year age threshold and had announced that he will not contest this time. He is busy campaigning for the party. Ramapati Ram, 68, was the UP BJP chief when Rajnath Singh was the party president.

BJP has also done shuffling in some seats of UP. Praveen Nishad, a member of the NISHAD party who won the Lok Sabha bypoll from Gorakhpur in 2018 but switched over to BJP a couple of weeks back, is BJP candidate from Sant Kabir Nagar. His name was earlier doing the rounds for Bhadohi.

Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan will contest from Gorakhpur. By fielding Kishan, BJP has again gone for a Brahmin candidate. Upendra Dutt Shukla, a Brahmin leader, had lost to Praveen Nishad in 2018 bypoll. Manoj Tiwari, another Bhojpuri actor, had contested from this seat in 2009 against Adityanath on an SP ticket. He is now a BJP MP and head of party’s Delhi unit.

BJP will also fight the Pratapgarh seat this time and has fielded Sangam Lal Gupta as its candidate. This seat had gone to ally Apna Dal in 2014. Ramesh Bind (Bhadohi), Mukut Bihari (Ambedkar Nagar) and KP Singh (Jaunpur) were the other candidates announced by BJP on Monday.