Lavkush Patel: BSP's Last-Minute Candidate For Basti Seat

Like last-minute preparation or last-minute changes, for BSP, it is a last-minute switch in candidates. The party replaced Dayashankar Mishra with Lavkush Patel on Uttar Pradesh”s Basti in the final day of nomination. Mishra shifted from the BJP to the BSP last year, as Lok Sabha tickets are being denied to him.

Lavkush Patel comes from the OBC (Kurmi) community. He is the son of two-term BSP MLA Jitendra Chaudhary. He is being contested against BJP MP Harish Dwivedi and SP candidate Ram Prasad Choudhary.

As per the reports, Mayawati”s move to field Lavkush Patel is likely to weaken the votes of SP candidate Ram Prasad Chaudhary, who was a minister in the BSP government and also belongs to the Kurmi community.

Among the 4.3 lakh voters in the Basti Lok Sabha seat, there are over 3 lakh Kurmi voters, and the number of OBC voters is around seven lakh. Besides, the number of general voters in the constituency is around six lakh, and  the number of Muslim voters is nearly two and a half lakh.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP”s Harish Dwivedi won the Basti seat by defeating the BSP”s Ram Prasad Chaudhary by a margin of 30354 votes. In the parliamentary seat, Congress has won this seat seven times, and the BJP has won six times. Meanwhile, SP has not won this seat till now.

Basti Parliamentary constituency comprise five assembly segments and it includes Harraiya, Kaptanganj, Rudhauli, Bastisadar, and Mahadewa.