Battle for UP: Assembly speaker denied ticket

Lucknow, Feb 2 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party has denied ticket to Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit. The party decision comes in view of the fact that the veteran leader has crossed 75 years of age.Dixit was lobbying for a ticket for his son on his Bhagwant Nagar seat but the BJP has fielded Ashutosh Shukla.Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Law Minister Brajesh Pathak, who had won from Lucknow Central in 2017, has been shifted to Lucknow Cantonment, denying ticket to the sitting BJP MLA Suresh Tiwari. Rajnish Gupta has been fielded from Lucknow Central.With the announcement of Pathak's ticket, speculations of the BJP fielding Aparna Yadav from the seat have come to a halt.The seat was also being eyed by BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi who wanted her son Mayank Joshi to contest the same.Uttar Pradesh minister Swati Singh, who has been embroiled in a series of controversies, has been denied ticket from her Sarojini Nagar seat which now has former ED joint director Rajeshwar Singh as the new candidate.Rajeshwar Singh had joined the BJP a day before he was named candidate.Among those who were able to retain their seats are urban development minister Ashutosh Tandon, Neeraj Bora from Lucknow North and Jai Devi, wife of union minister Kaushal Kishore from Malihabad.The Lucknow West has gone to Anjani Srivastava, a loyal BJP worker for years. However, Avinash Trivedi from Bakshi Ka Talab has also been denied the ticket this time. Yogesh Shukla, brother of a senior journalist, has managed to get the ticket from Bakshi Ka Talab in place of Trivedi.The BJP sprung surprises outside Lucknow also as it has fielded Manish Rawat, who switched over from Samajwadi Party to BJP only a few days back, from Sidhauli.Rawat is the son-in-law of former Samajwadi Party MP Sushila Saroj.Interestingly, Samajwadi Party has fielded Anurag Bhadauria, who is also son-in-law of Sushila Saroj, as candidate from Lucknow East.The BJP had won eight out of the nine seats in Lucknow in the last state elections.Lucknow goes to polls on February 23.
--IANS amita/shs

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