LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is all set to blow his party’s poll bugle for the upcoming state assembly elections-2017 with his first public rally from RTI Ground in Ghazipur district – the stronghold of Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED)-- on Wednesday.
All prominent leaders of the party are expected to attend the rally, barring chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. The CM had expressed his strong reservations against the merger of QED – led by mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari -- with the SP. This was one of the key reasons for the feud that broke out in the Yadav family recently.
Though the QED’s merger with the SP has now been done, Akhilesh is likely to stick to his old stand and keep away from the rally which will launch SP’s poll campaign for the 2017 elections. Interestingly, he will inaugurate some development projects for Ghazipur on Wednesday, but from Lucknow itself. On Tuesday, he declared open a bridge on the Ganga in the eastern UP district.
QED has a strong presence in 15-20 constituencies of eastern UP. At present it has two MLAs in the assembly – Mukhtar and his elder brother Sigbatulah Ansari, representing Mau and Ghazipur respectively. Mukhar, at present, is in jail.
The rally assumes significance as it is happening after cancellation of October 6 show of Mulayam, slated to be held in his parliamentary constituency Azamagarh. Also it will test the crowd-pulling capacity of Ansari brothers, who have been trusted by Mulayam and his brother shivpal yadav at the cost of annoying even Akhilesh.
“Wednesday’s public rally will set a new record in the political history of Ghazipur in terms of magnitude. People from across all the eastern UP districts including Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Sonebhadra, Varansi, etc. have already started thronging the rally venue,” said QED chief Afzal Ansari.
On the course of party campaign in the state, SP spokesman Mohammad Shahid said that future course would be decided only after Wednesday’s Ghazipur rally which is very crucial for the party.
Ansari brothers will put their might to make the rally a roaring success at RTI Ground where PM Narendra Modi addressed a public rally on November 14. Earlier, Mulayam had to start party’s campaign by addressing a rally in from Azamgarh on October 6 but it was postponed in the wake of ongoing battle of titans in Yadav family.