LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party announced the third list of 56 candidates on Thursday including several bigwigs who had recently switched over to the SP from other parties including the BJP and BSP.
Prominent among the heavyweight turncoats who figured in the SP list which had candidates across the phases are former Yogi minister Dara Singh Chauhan, senior BSP leaders Lalji Verma, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Rakesh Pandey and Vinay Shankar Tiwari.
While Lalji Verma, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Rakesh Pandey and Vinay Shankar Tiwari, all BSP turncoats, have been fielded from their traditional seats Katheri, Akbarpur, Jalapur and Chillupar, respectively, Dara Singh Chauhan has been shifted to Ghosi, the pocket borough of mafia don-turned–politician Mukhtar Ansari. Chauhan had won the previous 2017 election from Madhuban in Mau district on a BJP ticket and was seeking to change his seat this time owing to alleged anti-incumbency. Notably, Mukhtar’s brother Sigbatullah had also joined the SP last year.
Even Kajal Nishad, a renowned Bhjopuri actress and Congress turncoat, has been fielded from Campiyerganj in Gorakhpur.
Moreover, the list of the 56 is dominated by non-Yadav OBCs who make the major bloc of 15 followed by 10 Muslims, 10 SC, 8 Yadavs, five women and 8 others. Notably, the party has announced the names of its veteran leaders like former speaker Mata Prasad Pandey from his traditional Itwa seat and Ram Govind Chaudhury, the leader of opposition in the current Assembly, from Bansdih. Rakesh Verma, son of late Beni Prasad Verma, has been fielded from Kursi.
The party reposed faith in a number of sitting MLAs like Arvind Singh Gope and gave the ticket again to five of the six sitting MLAs from Azamgarh district declared so far.
Significantly, the party has announced candidates in four of the five assembly segments of Gorakhpur, the stronghold of UP CM Yogi Adityanath. However, it has yet to announce the contender against the UP CM who would be in the fray from Gorakhpur Urban.
Akhilesh has also fielded five-time BSP MLA from Didarganj in Azamgarh and former assembly speaker late Sukhdeo Rajbhar’s son Ramakant Rajbhar from the same seat which was his father’s stronghold.