The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced its candidates for the impending by-elections to be held across four constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, coinciding with the Lok Sabha elections.

The party nominated Arvind Singh for the Dadraul constituency, Shailendra Kumar Shailu for the Gainsari district, and Shravan Gaur for the Duddhi (Reserved) constituency. O.P. Srivastava will represent the party in the Lucknow East district, being an Avadh Kshetra office holder within the party.

By-elections in the four constituencies of Uttar Pradesh will take place in stages alongside the Lok Sabha elections. The voting in the Dadraul constituency is scheduled for May 13, Lucknow East on May 20, Gainsari on May 25, and Duddhi on June 1.

The party chose not to allocate the seat of the late Ashutosh Tandon, whose demise on November 9, 2023, at the age of 63, triggered the by-election.

Arvind Singh’s candidacy for Dadraul follows the passing of his father, Manvendra Singh, who succumbed to a prolonged illness at the age of 74 on January 5, necessitating the by-election. Manvendra Singh was a three-term MLA and Cabinet minister in Yogi Adityanath’s inaugural government.

Manvendra Singh had been a long-standing member of the Congress Party before joining the BJP in 2017 and subsequently winning the Dadraul seat in the 2022 elections. He was 70 years old at the time of his death.

Shailendra Singh, now contesting the Gainsari seat, had previously been the BJP MLA there from 2017 to 2022. The seat became available after the death of the sitting Samajwadi Party MLA Shiv Pratap Yadav on January 26. Shailendra Singh began his political journey with Lok Dal and has held the Gainsari seat four times.

Shravan Gaur, the selected candidate for Duddhi, holds a position in the BJP’s Scheduled Tribe Morcha. The Duddhi seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, became vacant due to the disqualification of Ramdular Gond of the BJP in December 2023. Gond was convicted in a rape case and sentenced to 25 years in prison for an incident that took place nine years prior.

In accordance with the Representation of the People Act, a lawmaker sentenced to a prison term of two years or more is immediately disqualified “from the date of conviction” and remains disqualified for an additional six years following the completion of their sentence.