The BJP on Saturday released its first list of 107 candidates for Uttar Pradesh. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will contest from Gorakhpur (Urban) assembly constituency and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to contest from Sirathu assembly seat in Prayagraj district. Chief minister Adityanath and deputy chief minister Maurya are currently members of state legislative council.Union minister and BJP election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Dharmendra Pradhan and national general secretary Arun Singh released the first list of candidates at party headquarters here. Pradhan said that people will support BJP once again in 2022 and the BJP will win more than 300 seats this time also.Pradhan said that the BJP is announcing 105 candidates for 57 seats in first phase and 48 seats in second phase. Other two constituencies are Gorakhpur (Urban) and Sirathu from where polling will be held in later phases. Yogi Adityanath was five time Lok Sabha member from Gorakhpur till 2017 before becoming chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Of 83 sitting MLAs, 63 have been repeated and 20 MLAs have been dropped. Social equation has been taken into account while finalising the candidates. More than 60 per cent of the candidates announced are either from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Schedule Caste (SC) communities. About 44 candidates are from the OBC communities and 19 are from SC communities.Almost 10 per cent, tickets are given to women candidates.Defence minister Rajnath Singh's son and sitting MLA for Noida Pankaj Singh is once again fielded from his current assembly constituency.AUttar Pradesh Power Minister Srikant Sharma will once again contest from Mathura.The Assembly polls will be held in seven phases in February-March starting from February 10. Counting of votes will be held on March 10. Last day of nomination for 58 Assembly seats, where polling will be held in the first phase, is January 21, while that for 55 seats in the second phase is January 28. Voting will be held on February 10 and February 14 in the first and second phase respectively.