Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: From Nauman Masood to Suresh Khanna, Here is The List of Five Key Candidates in Phase 2

55 Constituencies in Nine District will be voting in the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022. The ruling BJP might face a tougher battle on the 55 seats that will go to polls in the second phase of the Polls compared to the first round since the region has a high concentration of Muslims, influenced by the religious leaders of the Barelvi and Deoband sects.

The polling in the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election will be held on February 14.

Jagpal Singh from BJP will have his task cut out as he tries win Saharanpur. Currently held by Congress' Masood Akhtar, Saharanpur is one of the 403 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh that falls under the Saharanpur district. Saharanpur is one of the Muslim-majority constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh. In addition, a number of other settlements in the area are bi-religious. Both Hindus and Muslims have Tyagis, Jats, and Gujjars in their midst. While the upcoming polls in Saharanpur are said to be a litmus test for Congress, the BJP and BSP are leaving no stones unturned in order to register a victory from the seat. Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: From CM Yogi Adityanath to Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, Here are the 7 Key Candidates In Upcoming Polls in UP  

Nauman Masood, the brother of Imran Masood who recently quit the Congress and joined the Samajwadi Party, has joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), party president Mayawati said in a tweet on Thursday morning. The party has fielded him from the Gangoh constituency of the Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Assembly polls. 

"Nauman Masood, nephew of former Union Minister Rashid Masood and brother of Imran Masood joined Bahujan Samaj Party yesterday, leaving Lok Dal. The party has made him the candidate from the Gangoh assembly seat," she tweeted.

UP minister, Suresh Khanna, is contesting elections to set a record of winning his seat for the ninth consecutive term.

Khanna has been winning the seat continuously since 1989. He has held several portfolios in BJP governments and is presently the Parliamentary Affairs minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.

He belongs to the Khatri community that comprises only 1 per cent population of the area.

If he wins his seat this time, he will equal the record of Ram Sewak of Congress, from the Jagdishpur constituency in Amethi district, who won nine consecutive times.

At 27, Bijnor's Suchi Mausam Chaudhary is the youngest woman MLA in Uttar Pradesh assembly. She is the wife of Aishwarya Chaudhary, who is currently in jail for allegedly inciting violence in Peda, where communal clashes claimed the lives of four people and injured 12 others in September last year.  Suchi is an RSS cadre as well.

Suchi Chaudhary was a non-entity in UP politics.Her name surfaced just before the elections when BJP announced her as a candidate from Bijnor seat.  Uttarakhand Assembly Elections 2022: From CM Pushkar Singh Dhami To Harish Rawat, Here Are Five Key Candidates Contesting The State Vidhan Sabha Polls

Suchi defeated her nearest rival and SP candidate Ruchi Veera by over 27,000 votes. During election campaign, Suchi raked up the issue of Peda riots and claimed that those who were jailed by the Samajwadi Party government were innocent.

Dharmendra Kumar Singh Shakya, who landed on BJP's 2017 ticket in the Modi wave in Badaun district of UP, captured Constituency - 116, Sheikhupur Assembly seat. In the 17th assembly election, BJP's candidate Dharmendra Kumar Singh Shakya got 93702 votes and defeated SP's Ashish Yadav by a huge margin of 23386 votes. Samajwadi Party candidate Ashish Yadav got 70316 votes in this election.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 11, 2022 01:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).