LUCKNOW: Giving the formal shape to their alliance, Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) and Jayant Chaudhury-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) released their first joint list of 29 candidates to be fielded on the western UP constituencies going to poll in the first and second phase of the UP elections on February 10 and 14 respectively.
Of those 29 names announced jointly by the two allies, 19 belong to RLD and 10 to the SP. As per the sources, SP has agreed to spare around 30-36 seats of western UP to ally RLD.
Of the 29 seats, Agra Rural, Agra Cantt, Baldev, Khair, Purqazi and Hapur are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.
While RLD will contest Shamli, Purkazi, Khatauli, Nehtor, Baghpat, Loni, Modinagar, Hapur, Jewar, Bulandshahr, Syana, Khair, Sadabad, Chata, Govardhan, Baldev, Agra Dehat, Fatehpur Sikri, and Khairagarh seats, SP would file candidates in Kairana, Charthawal, Kithore, Meerut, Sahibabad, Dhalauna, Kol, Aligarh, Agra Cantt, and Bah.
Prominent among those fielded by the RLD include Pradeep Chaudhary (Guddu) from Sadabad, Tejpal Singh from Chhata, Pritam Singh from Govardhan, Mahesh Kumar Jatav from Agra (Rural), Sikri Brijesh Chahar from Fatehpur, Rautan Singh from Khairagarh, Sudesh Sharma from Modinagar, and Madan Bhaiyya from Loni.
The RLD has also fielded Gajraj Singh from Hapur, Avtar Singh Bhadana from Jewar, Haji Yunus from Bulandshahr, Dilnawaz Khan from Syana, Bhagwati Prasad Suryavanshi from Khair, Prasann Chudhary from Shamli, Anil Kumar from Purqazi, Rajpal Singh Saini from Khatauli, Munshi Ram from Nahtaur and Ahmad Hameed from Baghpat.
The RLD has given ticket to BJP turncoat Avatar Singh Bhadana from Jewar. Bhadana, the sitting BJP MLA from Meerapur, had crossed over to the RLD on Wednesday. Bhadana has been four-time Lok Sabha MP various seats including Faridabad in Haryana. He was fielded by Congress again from Faridabad but lost in 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The SP has fielded Kunwar Singh from Agra Cantt, Madhusudan Sharma from Bah, Amarpal Sharma from Sahibabad, Aslam Chaudhary from Dhaulana, Salman Saeed from Kol, Zafar Alam from Aligarh, Nahid Hassan from Kairana, Pankaj Malik from Charthawal, Shahid Manzoor from Kithaur and Rafeeq Ansari from Meerut.
The SP has rewarded prominent jat leader and Congress turncoat Pankaj Mallik from Charthawal in Muzaffarnagar. Pankaj had joined the SP with his father Harendra Mallik recently wielding a jolt to Congress.
Of the 29 candidates announced for the first two phases, the two parties have fielded nine Muslim candidates. On expected lines, SP has reposed faith in the minority community as six of its 10 candidates announced on Thursday are Muslims. SP has not given ticket to a single woman in its share of 10. On the other, of the 19 RLD candidates, three belong to the Minority community.
Of the 29 candidates announced Thursday, Babita Devi of the RLD is the lone woman nominee who will be putting up the electoral fight from Baldev assembly constituency.
The RLD and the SP had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together but RLD had failed to open its account on the three seats – Muzaffarnagar, Mathura and Baghpat—it had contested on. Even the then RLD chief Chaudhury Ajit Singh and Jayant both had lost the elections.
In previous assembly elections, SP had an alliance with the Congress while RLD had gone it alone. It could win just Chhaprauli seat and alter in 2018, its MLA Sahendra Singh Ramala had joined the BJP.