Chandra Shekhar of Azad Samaj Party to go up against CM Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur

Mangalore Today News Network

Gorakhpur, Jan 20, 2022: Azad Samaj Party chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad will contest the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls from the Gorakhpur seat, squaring off against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

 

On January 18, the Azad Samaj Party had released its first list of 33 candidates for the initial phases of polling in the UP assembly election. At the time, the party had played it close to the chest where Chandra Shekhar Aazad would be contesting from.

Chandra Shekhar Aazad has said the Azad Samaj Party would go solo in the Uttar Pradesh polls. This came hours after he had confirmed an alliance between his party and the Samajwadi Party.

The UP assembly polls are only the second major election that the Azad Samaj Party is fighting since being formed less than two years ago. It had taken a distant third place when it contested the Bihar assembly polls in 2020.

Notably, Aazad is no stranger to challenging bigwigs in their bastion. Ahead of the general elections in 2019, the Dalit leader had announced his intention to run against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, the latter’s Lok Sabha constituency.

On the other hand, Yogi Adityanath is a five-time MP from Gorakhpur.
After much speculation, the BJP decided to field the UP chief minister from his home turf of Gorakhpur in the upcoming election, slated to begin from February 10. There had been talk that Yogi Adityanath would contest from the Ayodhya or Mathura seat this time around.

Yogi Adityanath has not contested an assembly election before. In 2017, he was a Lok Sabha MP when he became the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. Later, he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC).

For the first two phases of voting, the BJP announced the names of 107 candidates for as many seats. Of these, the ruling party won 83 in 2017. The winning MLAs from 63 of these seats have been retained, while the remaining 20 sitting MLAs have been dropped.

Uttar Pradesh votes for a new government in a seven-phase poll, results of which will be declared on March 10.

Courtesy:India Today