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Journalism of Courage
THE SAMAJWADI Party on Tuesday announced 31 candidates for MLC polls scheduled for March 6. The list, which included several loyalists of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, also has the nephew of SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav.
Arvind Pratap Yadav, the nephew of Ram Gopal — who released the list on Tuesday — has been given ticket from the Etah-Mathura-Mainpuri seat.
Significant among other candidates are Sunil Singh Sajan (Lucknow-Unnao) and Anand Singh Bhadauria (Sitapur) — both of whom were expelled from the party on December 25 but later reinducted on January 2.
Akhilesh’s schoolmate, Thakur Udaiveer Singh Dhakre, has been fielded from Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri seat. Another Akhilesh loyalist, Rajesh Yadav, have been given ticket from Barabanki. Perfume trader Padamraj Jain ‘Pammi’ has got a ticket. Akhilesh had visited his residence on Sunday for a wedding.
Two relatives of state ministers have also been fielded. While Pervez Ali, son of minister Mehboob Ali, will contest from the Moradabad-Bijnor seat, Brij Kishore Singh — brother of minister Raj Kishore Singh — has got a ticket for Basti-Sidharth Nagar seat.
Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya’s cousin, Akshay Pratao Singh alias Gopalji — the lone SP candidate to win in 2010 — will again contest from Pratapgarh. Former director of Secondary Education, Vasudev Yadav, has been fielded from Allahabad.
Narendra Bhati, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has also been given a ticket. The only Brahmin candidate, Ramesh Mishra, has been fielded from Banda-Hamirpur.
The party has fielded 16 Yadavs, four Muslims, five Thakurs and one Jain and Brahmin each. It has also fielded one each from the Patel, Lodh, Jat and Gurjar communities. No Dalit has been fielded by SP.
The outcome of the polls to be held on March 3 is likely to catapult the ruling SP to majority in the 100-member Upper House and in the process facilitate the government to ensure passage of bills that normally get stuck because of lack of adequate strength.
“Once we get majority in the Upper House, our government would be able to breathe easy as many of our projects have been spiked or voted out because of being in minority in the Vidhan Parishad,” party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhry, himself an MLC, said.
Of late many legislations passed by the Vidhan Sabha, have been referred to the Select Committee and the government was forced to re-introduce them in the Vidhan Sabha. “Precious time would be saved once we are in majority,” Chaudhry said.
As the term of 36 MLCs ended on January 15, BSP’s strength fell from 45 members to just 11. The SP at present has 29 members.
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