UP Election 2022: 'Will continue to be part of BJP,' says Swati Singh after party denies her ticket

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled a list of 17 candidates for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections on Tuesday; however it did not include minister Swati Singh.
Swati Singh is Uttar Pradesh's Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Women's Welfare. She said, "I have been a member of the BJP since I was 17 years old and would continue to be a member of the saffron party." Addressing the media, Singh said, "I am a member of the BJP and will stay so for the rest of my life. No worker should challenge the party leadership's decision. The party must have done it for the better."

Meanwhile, the BJP did not include Assembly Speaker Hriday Narain Dikshit in its candidate list, and Brijesh Pathak's seat was altered. Candidates for all nine Assembly seats in Lucknow were announced on Tuesday. Ashutosh Shukla has been nominated to represent Bhagwantnagar in Unnao district, where Hriday Narain Dikshit is the current MLA. Rajrejeshwar Singh has been fielded from Sarojini Nagar, the seat of outgoing minister Swati Singh, despite taking voluntary retirement after being deputed to the Enforcement Directorate from the Uttar Pradesh police.

Swati Singh and her spouse Daya Shankar Singh were both candidates for the Sarojini Nagar seat. Brijesh Pathak, the incumbent Lucknow (central) MLA and minister, has been fielded from Lucknow Cantonment, burying rumours that Aparna Yadav, the daughter-in-law of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, would be fielded from there.  Aparna Yadav ran for the seat in the last elections but was defeated. State minister Ashutosh Tandon will run from his Lucknow east seat, according to the BJP's list.

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• BJP
• Congress
• UP Election 2022
• Swati Singh
• Samajwadi Party