Mayawati's Party Fields Scheduled Caste Candidates Against Akhilesh Yadav, Uncle In UP

Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party today fielded Scheduled Castes (SC) candidates from Karhal and Jaswant Nagar, the seats from where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav will be contesting the UP Assembly polls.

Apart from the two candidates, the party also declared 51 other names for the third phase of the state polls. According to the list of 53 candidates, Kuldeep Narain will be contesting from Mainpuri's Karhal against Akhilesh Yadav.

A candidate belonging to the SC community will be contesting from Etawah's Jaswant Nagar against Shivpal Yadav.

According to the BSP, the seats for which it announced the candidates fall in Hathras, Firozabad, Kasganj, Etah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, and Mahoba districts.

The elections will be held in seven phases and the counting will take place on March 10.

In the third phase, polling will be held on February 20 for 59 seats spread over 16 districts. Fifteen of these seats fall in the reserved category.

For the seats that go to the polls in the third phase, the BSP has fielded six women and three Muslim candidates. Earlier on Saturday, the party had released a list of 51 names for the second phase, the polling for which will be held on February 14.