Turncoats rewarded with candidature for UP Legislative Council polls by BJP

Four political turncoats, who had resigned from their membership in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council last year to facilitate Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his two deputies and two other cabinet colleagues to get the membership of the Upper House of the state Legislature, were today named by the BJP as its candidates for the upcoming Legislative Council polls.

In a statement issued here, the party announced the names of 10 candidates for the April 26 polls.

The BJP candidates are -- state ministers Mahendra Singh and Mohsin Raza, Sarojini Agarwal, Bukkal Nawab, Yashwant Singh, Jaiveer Singh, Vidhyasagar Sonkar, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Ashok Kataria and Ashok Dhawan.

Kataria, Sonkar and Pathak are general secretaries of the state BJP unit, while Dhawan, a former MLC, hails from Varanasi.

Meanwhile, Apna Dal (Sonelal) spokesperson Arvind Sharma, in an official statement, said, "The president of Apna Dal (Sonelal), Ashish Singh Patel, will be the candidate for the 11th seat left by the BJP for the party."