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This story is from January 15, 2022

Uttar Pradesh elections: Former Uttrakhand governor and prominent Jatav leader Baby Rani Maurya to contest from Agra (Rural)

The BJP has dropped seven sitting MLAs from the parliamentary constituencies of Agra, Mathura and Aligarh, sparking some rebellion.
Uttar Pradesh elections: Former Uttrakhand governor and prominent Jatav leader Baby Rani Maurya to contest from Agra (Rural)
Former Uttrakhand governor Baby Rani Maurya. (File image)
AGRA: In an attempt to reach out to Dalit voters, particularly the Jatav community—the core vote bank of BSP chief Mayawati— the BJP has fielded four “Jatav” candidates, including former Uttrakhand governor and prominent Jatav leader, Baby Rani Maurya, on the five reserved seats in Agra, Mathura and Aligarh. The party released its first list of 107 candidates, including 20 from the three districts, for the upcoming UP assembly polls on Saturday.

The BJP has dropped seven sitting MLAs from the parliamentary constituencies of Agra, Mathura and Aligarh, sparking some rebellion.
Baby Rani Maurya was the first Dalit woman who became Agra’s mayor in 1995 and had unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections in 2007 from Agra’s Etmadpur seat on BJP ticket. She is presently the party’s national vice president.
The other three Jatav candidates are also sitting MLAs — Dr GS Dharmesh from Agra (Cantt), Pooran Prakash Jatav from Mathura’s Baldeo and Raj Kumar Sahyogi from Aligarh’s Iglas and one non-Jatav candidate from Khair, Anoop Kumar Balmiki.
Dalits in Uttar Pradesh are an influential vote. Their population is around 21.6 percent, which includes 66 Dalit castes. In Agra, Jatavs with a population of around 3.95 lakh are the second highest (13.4%), followed by Thakurs at 12.57% (3.70 lakh) and Muslims at 10% (2.97 lakh).
Besides, Maurya, two cabinet ministers from Mathura—Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan (Development, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries minister) and Srikant Sharma (power) will contest from Chhata and Mathura constituencies respectively and Sandeep Singh, Minister of State for Education and grandson of former chief minister late Kalyan Singh will contest from Atrauli constituency in Aligarh.

Talking to TOI, Maurya said, "I am thankful to my party leaders for having entrusted me with various roles and will do my best. I had never thought to reach this level in politics and it’s all due to the support from my party." She claims that the BJP will win the elections “hands down” and form the government in the state.
"I am a daughter and daughter-in-law of Agra.. I started my career from this city and will do my best for the community and the town", she said, adding that people from SC communities get maximum respect in the BJP. On being asked about Mayawati’s core vote bank in Agra, she said, “She has done nothing for the community and now they are all with BJP."
However, the BJP has denied tickets to seven sitting MLAs— five of them are from Agra — Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh, who is a Minister of state for Khadi and village industries from Fatehpur Sikri, Ram Pratap Singh (Etmadpur), Hemlata Diwakar (Agra rural), Mahesh Goyal (Kheragarh) and Jitendra Verma (Fatehabad), one each from Mathura and Aligarh — Karinda Singh (Govardhan) and Dalveer Singh from Barauli.
Besides Maurya from Agra (Rural SC), BJP has fielded former party MP Chaudhary Babulal from Fatehpur Sikri, two turncoats, who recently joined BJP — Dr Dharampal Singh from SP and Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha from BSP have been given tickets from Etmadpur and Kheragarh constituencies respectively and Chotte Lal Verma from Fatehabad. The party has fielded Zila sahkari bank chairman Thakur Meghshyam Singh from Govardhan and Jaiveer Singh from Barauli.
Talking to TOI, BJP MLA from Fatehpur Sikri, Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh, said that he felt bad but is hopeful that the party would take a decision in favour of everyone. Expressing similar views, another sitting MLA from Fatehabad ,Jitendra Verma said, "I have no complaints with leaders and will support the candidate selected by the party from our constituency."
Karinda Singh, sitting MLA from Govardhan, said, "I am a dedicated worker of the party but I’m surprised that I’ve been denied the ticket."
Members of Agarwal community expressed dissatisfaction over distribution of tickets and warned to support other parties’ candidates if the BJP does not change the candidates. "If Agarwal community is in majority in Agra, then BJP should have given tickets to candidates from our community. We have been supporting the party for decades but they have disappointed us," said president of Vyapar mandal, TN Agarwal.
President of the party's Braj region, Rajnikant Maheshwari, said that people feel bad after denial of tickets but the party has chosen candidates after conducting a survey. "The party has denied tickets to those MLA, whose reports were not good," he said.
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