Mayawati announces 100 more candidates in UP

Lucknow, Jan 6 : The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Friday released its second list of 100 candidates, taking the total number of contestants it has announced so far to 200.

Its first list of 100 candidates was issued on Thursday.

The Friday list carries names for assembly segments that go to the polls in the second (February 15) and third phase (February 19) of the state's staggered election.

It includes candidates for Etawah and Mainpuri, the stronghold of arch rival the Samajwadi Party.

V.K. Agarwal has been given ticket from Palia (Lakhimpur), Ramhet Bharti from Hargon, Mahesh Chandra Mishra from Maholi, retired IPS officer Gurbachan Lal from Puvaya, Mohd Aslam Khan from Shahjahanpur Sadar and Avdhesh Kumar Verma from Tilhar.

Anees Ansari will be the BSP nominee from Bareilly City and Rajendra Prasad Gupta from Bareilly Cantt.

Narendra Nath Chaturvedi has been fielded from Etawah, Durgesh Shakya (Jaswantnagar), Raghvendra Gautam (Bharthana), Mohd Umar Khan (Farukkhabad), Nitin Singh (Kannauj), Tahir Hussain (Chibramau), Vijay Singh (Tirwa) and Anurag Singh from Kannauj.

Mayawati also declared candidates for Lucknow: Ajay Srivastava (Lucknow North), Arman Khan (Lucknow West), Saroj Shukla (Lucknow East) and Rajiv Srivastava (Lucknow Central).

Maharaj Singh has been fielded from Mainpuri, the pocket borough of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.