The Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released a list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha by-elections.

The BJP announced Raghuraj Singh Shakya as its candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha by-polls in Mainpuri, which is going to polls after the demise of Samajwadi Party (SP) veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Shakya was once a close associate of Shivpal Yadav but quit his Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party to join the BJP earlier this year. He was earlier associated with the Samajwadi Party.

Shakya is pitted against the Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav, the wife of party chief Akhilesh Yadav and daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh.

The ruling party in the state had hinted earlier that it will consider fielding a strong candidate in Samajwadi Party's stronghold. The BJP had successfully breached the party's citadels of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats recently and would be hoping to repeat its performance in Mainpuri as well.

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For the Assembly by-polls in India's most populous state, the BJP has fielded Rajkumari Saini from the Khatauli seat and Akash Saxena from the Rampur seat.

The BJP also decided to field Ashok Kumar Pincha from the Sardarshahar Assembly constituency in Rajasthan and Kedar Prasad Gupta from the Kurhani constituency in Bihar. Brahmanand Netam will be BJP’s candidate from Chattisgarh's Bhanupratappur Assembly constituency.

The BJP announced its candidates through a press release, undersigned by the Bharatiya Janata Party National General Secretary Arun Singh.

Polling is scheduled on December 5 whereas the counting will be held on December 8, which coincides with the results of the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections.

A total of five seats in four states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Bihar will be going for the Assembly by-polls.