LUCKNOW: A day after the Haryana poll outcome, a prominent member of the INDIA bloc -- Samajwadi Party – rushed with the announcement of party candidates for six of the 10 seats going to bypoll in the state later this year.
Interestingly, the SP leadership announced the candidates for those seats which were being demanded by ally Congress. The SP move puts the prospects of the Congress party of contesting on five of the 10 seats in alliance with SP in limbo. Meanwhile, the Congress party was taken aback by the SP move saying that it was not consulted on the issue.
For the bypolls on 10 assembly seats in UP, the Congress had put forth its demand for five seats. Now on Wednesday SP named candidates for six assembly seats including Phulpur – that was assumed to be earmarked for Congress. SP has fielded Mujtaba Siddiqui on the seat.
The list of candidates declared by SP includes names of Tej Pratap Yadav as a candidate from Karhal - the assembly seats vacated by Akhilesh Yadav after he was elected MP from Kannauj. Tej Pratap is Akhilesh’s nephew and son-in-law of Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Sitting Ayodhya MP Awadhesh Prasad's son Ajit Prasad is the party's pick for the Milkipur seat as a replacement for his father. Ajit Prasad has recently landed in a soup after Ayodhya police lodged a kidnapping case against him based on a complaint from a local resident Ravi Tiwari.
From Sisamau in Kanpur, SP has sown confidence in Naseem Solanki, wife of jailed and disqualified Sisamu MLA Ifran Solanki. Others on the list include Shobhawati Verma from Katehri and Jyoti Bind from Majhawan.
As per the buzz around, SP was thinking of sparing Phulpur, Ghaziabad and Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar) seats for the Congress. However, with SP having declared its candidate from Phulpur, the Congress can pin its hopes on the remaining two seats.