LUCKNOW: With the stage set for the biggest battle of ballots for 18th Lok Sabha, the political parties have started announcing their warriors to command the fronts belonging to high profile political families and the challenge is to protect their legacies.
Be it SP’s Ikra Hasan from Kairana, Ziaur Rehman Barq from Sambhal, four candidates of Mulayam Singh Yadav clan including Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh, Shivpal Yadav from Badaun, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri and Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, BJP candidate Kirtivardhan Singh from Gonda, the infamous Ansari clan’s Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur, TMC candidate Lalitesh Pati Tripathi from Bhadohi, swords are out for the political legacies are at stake.
Kairana: The SP candidate Ikra Hasan from Kairana, to vote in the first phase, is toiling hard to protect the legacy of three generation of her family. Her grandfather Chaudhury Akhtar Hasan had won from Kairana on Congress ticket in 1984 defeating BSP candidate Mayawati, as it was her debut in electoral politics. Ikra’s father Munnawar Hasan was elected from the same seat as SP candidate in 1996. After his demise in a road accident in 2008, his wife Tabassum Hasan (Ikra’s mother) took the baton and won the seat in 2009 and also in 2018 by-poll. Ikra’s brother Nahid Hasan is an SP MLA from Kairana Assembly segment but he is in jail due to multiple case of criminal offences registered against him.
Sambhal: SP MP late Shafiqur Rehman Barq represented the constituency for five times in Lok Sabha. He had also represented the assembly segment of Sambhal four times. He was announced the party candidate for the ensuing elections as well but the party chose his grandson as its candidate from the seat following the demise of Shfiqur Rehman Barq, 92, after prolonged illness due to old age. Zia is the SP MLA from Kundarki seat of Moradabad.
Etawah: The Yadav clan rules the roost here and is counted among the biggest political families of the country. This family of SP patriarch late Mulayam Singh Yadav is striving hard from western to eastern UP to protect its political legacy in Uttar Pradesh. Four members of Yadav clan have already taken command of four Lok Sabha seats including Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav in Azamgarh, Dimple Yadav in Mainpuri, Akshay Yadav (son of SP RS MP Prof Ram Gopal Yadav) in Firozabad and Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav in Badaun. Some more seats could be assigned to the family members. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav may also test the poll waters from Kannauj himself or field his nephew Tej Pratap Yadav.
Akshay YadavGonda: This seat is likely to witness a fierce battle between two political families. The scion of Mankapur royal family and sitting BJP MP Kirtivardhan Singh will be facing SP candidate Shreya Verma, grand-daughter of prominent SP leader Beni Prasad Verma who had his clout among Kurmi caste group. While Kirtivardhan is making all out efforts to win make a hat-trick as BJP MP from Gonda and fifth term in Lok Sabha from the same seat. He had won 1998 and 2004 election from Gonda as SP candidate. His father Anand Vardhan Singh has represented the seat in 5th, 7th, 8th and ninth Lok Sabha as Congress MP. On the other, Shreya Verma is trying hard to reclaim her grandfather’s territory as he had won it in 2009 as Congress candidate.
Ghazipur: The infamous family of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari calls the shots here. This time, the sitting BSP MP Afzaal Ansari, Mukhtar’s brother, has switched sides and is riding the cycle as SP candidate. The political influence of the family in Ghazipur and adjoining areas can be gauged from the fact that all the three Ansari brothers—Mukhtar, Afzaal and Sigbatullah—and their sons have won 16 elections altogether during the last 39 years. Afzaal himself has represented Mohammadabad assembly segment five times (1985-2002) in UP Assembly. He has won from Ghazipur LS seat twice. Youngest Mukhtar has been a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar seat which is now represented by his son Abbas. Eldest Sigbatullah has been a two-time MLA from Mohammadabad in 2007 and 2012. Now his son Suheb Ansari is SP MLA from Mohammadabad seat.
Bhadohi: The prestige of Congress’s one of the most prominent political families of yore is at stake in the carpet town of Bhadohi from where Laliteshpati Tripathi is contesting as Trinamool Congress candidate. Lalitesh had left Congress and joined TMC in 2021 breaking a century-old ties with grand old party when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was party in-charge of eastern UP. Lalitesh is the great grandson of Kamlapati Tripathi, a former Congress stalwart and former UP CM. Lalitesh belongs to one of the most illustrious political families of Congress and his ancestral house – Aurangabad house in Varanasi—used to be the nerve centre of Congress activities in UP. He has been Congress MLA from Madihaan seat of Mirzapur.