BJP names Vishwadeep Singh as candidate from Firozabad, sparks discontent

BJP names Vishwadeep Singh as candidate from Firozabad, sparks discontent

The BJP named Vishwadeep Singh as its Lok Sabha candidate from Firozabad on Tuesday, causing discontent among local party leaders.

The BJP dropped sitting Firozabad MP Chandrasen Jadon and has announced Vishwadeep, the son of the first MP from the constituency, Brajraj Singh. Vishwadeep Singh is pitted against Samajwadi Party’s candidate Akshay Yadav.

Notably, Singh had previously unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections on a BSP ticket in 2014 and had joined the BJP in 2022.

Local BJP leaders said that they were expecting a more experienced leader, like former MLA Hariom Yadav, to contest the elections from Firozabad and Vishwadeep Singh’s candidature came as a surprise to them. They claimed that they didn’t even know that Singh was a part of the party. They added that Singh’s nomination undermined the party’s commitment to meritocracy.

In a similar way, the BJP had named Chandrasen Jadon as its candidate from Firozabad just days ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, who had defeated Akshay Yadav by over 28,000 votes.

Meanwhile, several party sources speculate that Vishwadeep Singh’s nomination may be part of the BJP’s strategy to appeal to caste demographics. As no candidates from the Kshatriya community have been fielded by the BJP in the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, sources speculate Singh’s candidature could be an attempt to woo votes from the community, after they raised concerns with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

While Brajraj Singh’s father was the first MP from Firozabad in 1957, his mother, Sushila Brajraj Singh, had unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha elections three times from Jalesar.

Firozabad will go to polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 7.