UP elections: Azam, Shivpal figure in SP’s first list of candidates
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, his uncle Shivpal Yadav and jailed leader Azam Khan were among 159 candidates who figured on the party’s first list of candidates for the impending assembly elections in UP, on Monday.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, his uncle Shivpal Yadav and jailed leader Azam Khan were among 159 candidates who figured on the party’s first list of candidates for the impending assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, on Monday.
As many as 66 leaders belonging to the other backward classes, over 30 Dalits, 31 Muslims and 12 women were also fielded by the party for the polls starting February 10.
“The list is balanced with due representations to all caste and community groups. The candidates are strong and will help the party to form the next government. The list is in sync with the party president’s motto of amalgamation of ‘Samajwadi (socialists)’ and ‘Ambadkarvadis (Ambadkarites)’,” SP national spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi told reporters here while releasing the first list.
As reported by HT earlier, Akhilesh will contest the polls from Karhal (Mainpuri) constituency, while former minister and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia chief Shivpal was declared the party’s candidate from the family bastion of Jaswantnagar in Etawah district.
The party has fielded jailed leader Azam Khan from his traditional Rampur seat while his son Abdullah Azam from Suar Tanda. Azam has been in Sitapur jail since February 2020 in various cases filed against him. Abdullah, who was also in jail, was released on January 15.
The party, meanwhile, has decided to re-nominate SP MLA Nahid Hasan from Kairana seat in Shamli. Hasan, who is facing a case under the Gangsters Act, was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police on January 16 and sent to judicial custody.
The party has also decided to retain sitting MLA and one of its Brahmin faces, Manoj Pandey, from Unchahar constituency. Utkrist Maurya, son of ex-BJP minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who also joined the SP recently, was denied the ticket from this seat.
With Monday’s list, the SP and its allies have released the names of a total of 194 candidates: 159 of SP, 33 of Rashtriya Lok Dal, one Nationalist Congress Party, and one Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party.
Former state minister Dharam Singh Saini, who switched over to the SP from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a few days ago, was named as the party’s nominee from Nakur in Saharanpur district. Former BJP leader Roshan Lal Verma (Tilhar in Shahjahanpur) was also among the turncoats who got an SP ticket on Monday. Supriya Aron, former mayor of Bareilly, who just joined the SP, was fielded from the Bareilly Cantt seat.
Taking a jibe at the SP list, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said: “Many thanks to the Samajwadi Party for finally declaring its list of candidates whose names the party had been releasing secretly. Now that the list is finally out, SP’s brand ambassadors have been revealed. It contains names of people with a tainted record and even now it appears to be just a trailer. The entire film is yet to be released.”
The BJP leader said the release of the list coincided with Balika Diwas or National Girl Child Day. “The list has names like Nahid Hasan, Azam Khan, Abdullah Azam, Sultan Baig, Mehboob Ali, Aslam Chaudhary, Irfan Solanki some of whom are in jail or out on bail. There are some other names of people on the list who have been accused of other crimes. So, this list is new but the trend is old of fielding candidates with a dubious track record,” he said.
The SP and its allies have decided to contest all 403 seats in the state assembly. However, they are yet to provide details on the seat-sharing between them.
