Lok Sabha elections 2024: BJP nominates Kripashankar Singh from Jaunpur

Former Maharashtra minister Kripashankar Singh. File Photo

The BJP has nominated Maharashtra politics' north Indian face Kripashankar Singh as Lok Sabha candidate from his native Jaunpur. The party announced the candidature on Saturday evening among others.

Singh had shifted his loyalty from the Congress to the BJP after the Jammu and Kashmir's special status was removed. The former minister of state had first made it to the legislative council and later represented Kalina in the lower house. An articulate and skillful politician had made it big in the Congress, but after losing the Assembly polls a decade ago, he had been uncomfortable in the Congress.

He also won the hearts of the BJP high command that put him in the contest instead of a former bureaucrat Abhishek Singh who had been very active there. In Jaunpur, the BSP has its sitting MP Shyam Singh Yadav, who had garnered over 50 per cent votes in 2019.

People close to Singh said he had been nurturing Jaunpur constituency even while working in Mumbai, his second home for five decades.