BJP treads carefully over its last 18 Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha candidates

The BJP is working to finalise its remaining 18 Lok Sabha candidates in Uttar Pradesh. It has already announced names for 61 constituencies in the state but has yet to take a final call on the rest.

Why the delay

The hold-up is linked to the changed political landscape in the state after the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party decided to contest together. In 2014 the BJP won 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh and its ally the Apna Dal took two. The party is weighing factors such as anti-incumbency and the new SP-BSP arithmetic before picking the remaining names.

The seats still pending, in alphabetical order, are Ambedkarnagar, Azamgarh, Banda, Bhadohi, Deoria, Firozabad, Ghosi, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Jhansi, Lalganj, Machhlishahr, Mainpuri, Phulpur, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Robertsganj and Santkabir Nagar.

Key contests

• Rae Bareli: Sonia Gandhi is the Congress candidate. Ajay Agarwal, who ran against her in 2014, has reportedly warned the party of a heavy setback if he is not given the ticket.
• Gorakhpur and Phulpur: both were long seen as BJP strongholds but were lost in by-elections. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath won Gorakhpur in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014; after he vacated it on becoming Chief Minister, the SP-BSP combine defeated the BJP in the by-poll. Phulpur was held by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, and the BJP lost it to the SP and BSP after he resigned the seat.
• Jhansi and Deoria: the party needs a replacement for Uma Bharti in Jhansi, and for Kalraj Mishra, who has said he will not contest Deoria.

Seats for allies

The BJP is also in talks with the Apna Dal, which will get two seats. Mirzapur is one; the second has not been settled, and the Apna Dal is understood to have asked for Pratapgarh.

What happened next

Yogi Adityanath had become Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in March 2017. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, counted on 23 May 2019, the BJP won 303 of the 543 seats nationally.

Originally published on 1 April 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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