UP polls: SP fields Subhavati Shukla against Adityanath in Gorakhpur Urban

Samajwadi Party's Subhavati Shukla will take on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the Gorakhpur Urban constituency in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Shukla's name figured in the list of 24 candidates released by the party on Monday.

The Gorakhpur Urban constituency will go to the polls in the sixth phase of the elections on March 3.

Shukla is the widow of a former senior BJP leader from Gorakhpur, Upendra Shukla, who was UP BJP's vice-president.

He had unsuccessfully contested the by-election from the Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency in 2018 after the seat was vacated by Yogi Adityanath on becoming the chief minister.

He passed away in May 2020. Upendra Shukla was a popular leader and was seen as BJP's Brahmin face in Purvanchal region.

Subhavati had joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) along with her two sons on January 20 in Lucknow.

Subhavati told PTI, "I want to thank the national president of the Samajwadi Party for giving respect to a woman like me who is weak and helpless and I promise him that I will register victory with record votes."

Her son Amit Shukla said, "My father was an ardent party (BJP) worker and lived according to principles of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya throughout his life but no one cared for him after his death. We have joined the Samajwadi Party after talking to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. We are impressed with his ideas about governance and faith in the Constitution."

"We will create a history and winning the seat will be a real tribute to my father," he added.

The Samajwadi Party has fielded former UP minister Narad Rai from Ballia Nagar. He will take on BJP's Dayashankar Singh, whose name was announced on Sunday by the BJP.

The SP also declared Akhilesh Yadav, a namesake of the Samajwadi Party chief, from Azamgarh's Mubarakpur.

He had contested from Mubarakpur in the 2017 UP Assembly elections and had lost to BSP's Shah Alam by 688 votes.