The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated Shrikant Sharma from the Mathura constituency for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Shrikant Sharma is the sitting MLA from Mathura and a Cabinet Minister in the government of Uttar Pradesh. At present, he holds charge of the Ministry of Power. He has also been in charge of the Himachal Pradesh BJP. Sharma is also national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014.

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Shrikant Sharma was born on July 1, 1970, in Govardhan, Uttar Pradesh. He is married to Shalini Sharma and the couple have two sons.

Sharma, 51, in his election affidavit, has mentioned his educational qualification as Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) from PGDAV College, Delhi. He has mentioned ‘Cabinet Minister of UP’ as his profession. The sitting MLA and minister’s total assets are declared at Rs 1.22 crore and liabilities are nil. Sharma has declared movable assets worth Rs 9.38 lakh and immovable assets worth Rs 10 lakh. According to the affidavit, his wife owns movable assets worth Rs 31 lakh and immovable assets worth Rs 72 lakh. Shrikant Sharma has no criminal case registered against him.

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The MLA contested elections from Mathura constituency in the 2017 assembly elections and he won against Pradeep Mathur by a margin of 1,01,161 votes. Pradeep Mathur had won three consecutive terms in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in 2002, 2007 and 2012.

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The BJP is looking to retain the high-stakes Mathura assembly seat in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls. The Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal has fielded Devendra Agarwal, a former MLA from the Sadabad seat. The INC has given ticket to Pradeep Mathur and the Mayawati-led BSP has replaced Jagjit Chaudhary with SK Sharma.

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In the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections, as many as 623 candidates will contest from 58 constituencies. Around 2.27 crore people are eligible to vote in this phase.