Uttar Pradesh polls: BJP fields Daya Shankar from Ballia, Sanjay Sinh from Amethi in 9th list

LUCKNOW: BJP state vice-president Daya Shankar Singh and former minister Sanjay Sinh are prominent among those who were named as the party candidates in its ninth list released late on Sunday evening.
In all, the party has replaced at least 15 of its sitting MLAs in the constituencies of east UP, going to the polls in the sixth and seventh phase. There are seven women in the list.
Continuing with its OBC outreach, the party has fielded 14 candidates from the group comprising castes like Kurmi, Rajbhar, Nishad and Nonia.There are nine Dalits and Thakurs, and eight Brahmins in the list.
While Daya Shankar has been fielded from Ballia Sadar and its sitting MLA, minister Anand Swaroop Shukla shifted to Bairia, the Bairia's controversial MLA Surendra Singh has been dropped. Just after the list was announced, Suredra Singh announced to contest as an independent.
Daya Shankar and his wife Swati Singh were in contention for Lucknow's Sarojini Nagar seat, but it went to former cop and ED officer Rajesjwar Singh.
Lambhua's sitting MLA Deomani Tripathi, who hogged limelight for writing letters to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, also failed to get a second chance. Vinod Singh, a former minister during the Mayawati government between 2007-2012, replaced Deomani in Lambhua.
In another interesting development, amid a tussle between his former wife Garima Singh and present wife Amita Singh, Sanjay Sinh was declared the BJP candidate.
All prominent MLAs like from Varanasi, minister Neelkanth Tiwari from Varanasi South, Ravindra Jaiswal from Varanasi North, Saurabh Srivastava from Varanasi Cantt and cabinet Minister Anil Rajbhar from Shivpuri have been retained.
Similarly, Anurag Singh, son of former cabinet minister Om Prakash Singh has been retained from Chunar and Harshvardhan Bajpai from Allahabad North.
Manish Jaiswal, a former Congress MLA and a close aide of former Union minister RPN Singh, has been fielded from Padrauna.
Ram Vilas Chauhan, the son of Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan, has been fielded from Madhuban.
Slain MLA Krishna Nand Rai's wife Alka Rai has been retained from Mohammadabad and minister Sangeeta Balwant Bind from Ghazipur.