In matters of securing ticket, it has been a mixed bag for those Samajwadi Party leaders who were on the radar of Akhilesh Yadav, Chief Minister and party president.
A day after Minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, facing graft charges, was granted nomination from his seat Amethi, two Ministers and one former Minister considered close to Mr. Akhilesh’s bête noire Shivpal Yadav were on Monday denied ticket.
The SP has, however, decided to field Aparna Yadav, Mulayam Singh’s younger daughter-in-law, from Lucknow Cantonment. Though she was declared a candidate from the seat last year, in subsequent lists issued during the battle between Mr. Akhilesh and Mr. Mulayam, her constituency was missing.
In a keenly watched contest, she will be pitted against former U.P. Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi who defected to the BJP recently.
The SP’s fresh list of 37 candidates was released a day after the deal with the Congress was sealed. The seats included key ones like Lucknow and Varanasi, and the Yadav stronghold of Azamgarh, where the party won nine out of 10 seats last time.
Former Minister Syeda Shadab Fatima has been denied ticket from Zahoorabad in Ghazipur in Purvanchal.
Mr. Akhilesh had in October sacked her as a Minister along with his uncle Shivpal Yadav, and two other Purvanchal heavyweights, Narad Rai and Om Prakash Singh.
While Om Prakash Singh has been fielded from his traditional seat Zamania, the SP is yet to announce its candidate from Ballia Nagar, Mr. Rai’s seat.
