Lucknow: BJP is learnt to be weighing the possibility of fielding a host of MLCs, including many ministers in the Yogi cabinet, in the UP elections to push in prominent names to counter the Samajwadi Party and its ally Congress.Sources said all prominent MLCs have been told to remain on alert even as the party starts the process of screening candidates for the Assembly polls.MLCs who may hit the poll cauldron include deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and senior ministers Arvind Kumar Sharma, Swatantra Dev Singh, Bhupendra Chaudhary and Dara Singh Chauhan.Maurya contested the 2022 Assembly election from Sirathu in Kaushambi but lost to Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) candidate Pallavi Patel by over 7,300 votes. His possible candidature in 2027, likely from a different constituency, is being speculated given his position as one of BJP’s most prominent non-Yadav OBC faces. The move aligns with BJP’s bid to blunt SP’s PDA narrative which dented the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.Arvind Kumar Sharma, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, is considered close to PM Narendra Modi. Speculation is rife that Sharma may be asked to contest from a seat in his home district of Mau. Sharma is a Bhumihar, an electorally significant community in parts of east UP.Swatantra Dev Singh, too, sources said, has been asked to remain prepared to hit the poll turf from a seat in his home district of Jalaun.Singh, a Kurmi, was the UP BJP president between 2019 and 2022, before being inducted into the Yogi cabinet. Singh contested the 2012 assembly elections from Kalpi but came a distant fourth.UP minister and former UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary too may be asked to contest the state elections. Chaudhary, a Jat, has been an MLC since 2016. Chaudhary contested the 1999 Lok Sabha election from Sambhal but lost to Samajwadi Party stalwart Mulayam Singh Yadav by a margin of over 1.15 lakh votes.He then contested the 2009 bypolls from Moradabad West but lost to BSP’s Balram Saini by over 31,000 votes. Sources said BJP is contemplating fielding Chaudhary from a west UP seat to bolster its Jat consolidation, a move that attains significance amid BJP’s tie-up with Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal.Dara Singh Chauhan, too, may be brought into the electoral fray. Chauhan, an OBC, was routed to the legislative council in 2024 despite losing his Ghosi assembly seat in a bypoll to SP’s Sudhakar Singh in 2023. Chauhan, a known party hopper, had earlier won from Madhuban on a BJP ticket in 2017. He was eventually inducted into the Yogi cabinet. However, just before 2022, he shifted to SP to contest from Ghosi, which he won. Chauhan was Rajya Sabha MP on an SP ticket (between 1996-2000) and then with BSP between 2000 and 2006. He also contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Ghosi on a BSP ticket but lost.The speculated move is also being linked to BJP’s plan to undertake a substantial overhaul of its candidate list. Sources said there is considerable discussion within the party about replacing a good number of sitting MLAs in view of anti-incumbency, local dissatisfaction and declining public connect. Reports of internal surveys and performance assessments suggest that the party is examining candidates on the basis of their winnability rather than simply repeating existing legislators.
