LS polls: BSP releases list of candidates, fields Simnani from Gorakhpur

The Bahujan Samaj Party on Friday released its fourth list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding former state president of the party Bhim Rajbhar from Azamgarh and ex-MP Balkrishna Chauhan from Ghosi.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has given ticket to Javed Simnani from Gorakhpur --- the stronghold of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP contested the polls along with the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

Of the seats on which the BSP announced its candidates on Friday, Ghosi was won by BSP's Atul Rai in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Mohammad Irfan has been fielded from Etah, while Shyam Kishor Awasthi is the BSP candidate from Dhaurahra Lok Sabha seat, the party said in a statement.

Sachidanand Pandey and Dayashankar Mishra have been fielded from Faizabad and Basti Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.

Satyendra Kumar Maurya is the BSP candidate from Chandauli and the party has fielded Dhaneshwar Gautam from Roberstganj (SC) constituency.

In the 2019 general elections, the BJP won 62 seats and its ally Apna Dal (S) two seats, brushing aside the challenge of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.

The BSP was the biggest gainer in the alliance with 10 seats. Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP) won five seats while the RLD could not open its account in the polls.

The Congress won the lone Rae Bareli seat from where Sonia Gandhi had contested.