On the first day of Navratri, the Bharatiya Janata Party announced 10 candidates for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly by-elections to be held on October 21, ignoring Jaya Prada’s request to allow her to contest the bypoll from Rampur.

The list also scotched rumours of Aparna Yadav, the younger daughter-in law of Mulayam Singh Yadav, joining the BJP. There were reports that she might join the BJP and contest the bypoll from Lucknow Cantonment Assembly constituency.

The party has fielded former legislator Suresh Tiwari from the Lucknow Cantonment seat which was won by Rita Bahuguna Joshi on BJP ticket in 2017. She vacated the seat after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Allahabad.

Aparna Yadav had unsuccessfully contested from Lucknow Cantonment against Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

The BJP announced Bharat Bhushan Gupta as its candidate from Rampur, giving a jolt to Jaya Prada who had shown her inclination to contest the bye-election from this constituency and had even started campaigning.

Sources say that Amar Singh was assured that Jaya Prada will get the ticket for Rampur Assembly seat and therefore she had even held meetings on Friday.

The Rampur seat is considered to be the bastion of Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan, who is now a Lok Sabha member. He had defeated Jaya Prada in the parliamentary election.

The other candidates announced by the BJP are Kirat Singh from Gangoh, Surendra Maithani from Govind Nagar in Kanpur district, Rajkumar Sahyogi from Iglas, Anand Shukla from Manikpur in Chitrakoot district, Ambrish Rawat from Zaidpur in Barabanki district, Rajesh Singh from Jalalpur in Ambedkar Nagar district, Saroj Sonkar from Balha in Bahraich district and Vijay Rajbhar from Ghosi.

The BJP has not yet declared its candidate from Pratapgarh seat which was won by its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) in 2017.

Sources in the BJP say that as Apna Dal (Sonelal) will field its candidate from Pratapgarh, the BJP has left the seat for its ally.

Bypoll are being held for 11 UP Assembly seats as they were vacated by their sitting MLAs. While ten of them were elected to the Lok Sabha, the MLA representing Ghosi seat, Phagu Chauhan, has been appointed Governor of Bihar.

By-election is not being held for Tundla seat as the matter is sub judice.

Of the seats where by-elections are being held, Rampur was held by Samajwadi Party while Jalalpur was won by Bahujan Samaj Party in 2017 and the remaining seats belonged to the BJP.

The by-elections will be held on October 21 and the counting of votes will taken up on October 24