Legislative Council Elections: BJP's UP Candidates From Upper And Backwards Castes, Former Minister Among Bihar Nominees

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday (9 March) announced three candidates from Bihar and seven from Uttar Pradesh for the Legislative Council elections.

The contest is for 11 seats of Bihar and 13 seats of UP. The last date of nomination filing is 11 March and the elections are scheduled for 21 March.

Of the seven UP candidates, two candidates each are from Thakur and Backward communities and one each is from Brahmin, Vaishya and Bhumihar castes.

Former minister Ashok Kataria has been chosen from the Gujjar community, while the party's state vice-president Mohit Beniwal represents the Jat community.

Vijay Bahadur Pathak hails from the Brahmin caste while Mahendra Singh and Santosh Singh are Rajputs by caste. Dharmendra Singh is a Bhumihar.

Among the Bihar candidates, the most notable is the name of Mangal Pandey. He is a former Bihar Minister and former BJP state president.

The other two BJP nominees are Anamika Singh and Lal Mohan Gupta. Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has already filed his nomination.