New Delhi, June 4 (PTI) The BJP on Saturday announced its candidates for the June 23 bypoll to two parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh and seven assembly constituencies in four states, fielding Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha from Town Bordowali and Bhojpuri star Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' from Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency.
Ghanshyam Lodhi will be the BJP candidate from the Rampur Lok Sabha seat.
The Azamgarh and Rampur constituencies were vacated by Samajwadi Party leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Mohd Azam Khan respectively after winning the assembly polls.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Nirahua had contested from the Azamgarh seat against Akhilesh Yadav but lost the election. The BJP has reposed faith in the Bhojpuri star, renominating him from the seat again.
For the Rampur seat, there was speculation that the party might nominate Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, whose Rajya Sabha term is coming to an end.
For the Rajinder Nagar assembly seat in Delhi, the BJP has fielded Rajesh Bhatia. The seat became vacant following senior AAP leader Raghav Chadha's election to Rajya Sabha from Punjab.
Tripura Chief Minister Saha is the BJP's candidate from the Town Bordowali assembly seat. Saha, a Rajya Sabha member, was recently appointed the state's chief minister, replacing Biplab Deb.
In Tripura, the party has fielded Ashok Sinha from Agartala, Swapna Das Paul from Surma (SC) and Malina Debnath from Jubarajnagar.
The party has nominated Gundlapalli Bharath Kumar Yadav from the Atmarkur assembly seat in Andhra Pradesh and Gangorti Kujur from Mandar (ST) in Jharkhand.
The by-election to three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats across six states will be held on June 23, according to the Election Commission.
The third parliamentary seat is Sangrur in Punjab which was vacated by Bhagwant Mann, who became the chief minister of the state after the Aam Aadmi Party won the recently held assembly polls there.
Votes will be counted on June 26 and the notification for the bypolls will be issued on May 30, the EC had said in a statement.
