By Faisal Fareed, Twocircles.net
The much-awaited list of candidates for BJP was finally declared on Monday evening. As expected, the first list of 149 candidates includes names of nearly 24 turncoats.
Among the prominent turncoats who have been given ticket by BJP include BSP’s Mahavir Rana from Behat, Dharam Singh Saini from Nakud, Om Kumar in Nahtaur, Roashan Lal Verma in Tilhar, Mamtesh Shakya from Patiyali, Bala Prasad Awasthi from Dhaurahra, Romi Sahni from Palia. Former Congress MLA Pradeep Choudhary from Gangoh was also given a ticket by the BJP, while RLD’s Dalbeer Singh has got a ticket from Barauli and Puran Prakash from Baldev.
Among other party leaders who had joined BJP but were not sitting MLA and yet got tickets include Omvati Devi (BSP) from Kithor, RLS’s Yogesh Dhama from Baghpat, SP’s Ajitpal Tyagi in Muradnagar, Congress leader Ramesh Tomar from Dhaulana, Arvind Giri from Gola Gokaranath, Anil Sharma of BSP from Shikarpur, Laxminarayn Choudhary from Chhata. Rani Pakdshalika Singh who had joined from SP too has been given ticket from Bah, so was Jitendra Verma from Fatehabad.
Former MPs who have been given ticket include cricketer Chetan Chauhan from Naugawa Saadat, Ramesh Tomar from Dhaulana, Avtar Singh Bhadana from Meerapur.
Leaders who were close to Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh too have got tickets. This includes Kalyan Singh’s grandson Sandeep Singh fielded from Atrauli, Devendra Singh Lodhi from Kasganj, Devendra Pratap Singh from Amapur and Virendra Verma from Marhara.
The list of 149 includes 11 females. Among the caste equation nearly 60 are from backward caste while among forwards, Thakurs have got maximum 21 tickets.
The most interesting case is that of Ramesh Tomar who had joined BJP in the morning and was given a ticket in the evening from Dhaulana.