SP aims to field Ansari’s brother,wife as LS candidates

Recently,Mukhtar along with his brother and MLA Sibghatullah Ansari had met ministers Shivpal Yadav and Azam Khan at state Assembly.

Sources said,for SP,winnability factor has become the most important in the coming Lok Sabha elections and the criminal tag seems to be a non- issue.

“In 2004 Afzal Ansari had won Ghazipur seat for SP. He is a seasoned politician and had been MLA for five terms. There is no harm if he contests as SP candidate again,” a senior SP functionary said.

Both Mukhar and Afzal had lost 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi and Ghazipur,respectively,as BSP candidates after which they had formed their own outfit QED. The outfit had even contested the 2012 Assembly elections and had won two seats including Mau which was bagged by Mukhtar.

QED has its pockets of influence over Muslim voters in Mau,Ghazipur,Ballia and other adjoining areas. Sources said SP initiated the move to rope in Mukhtar’s brother and wife after QED announcing Afzal Ansari as its candidate from Ballia — a seat which is currently held by SP’s Neeraj Shekhar,the son of former PM late Chandrashekhar.

Ballia assumes significance for SP due to the socialist legacy of Chandrashekhar. With Afzal Ansari announcing his candidature,Neeraj Shekhar is on a sticky wicket. For safeguarding Neeraj,Ghosi parliamentary seat may be offered to Afzal.

SP defends decision to field Atiq draws flak from BJP

Firozabad : SP Saturday stood by its decision to field mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed as its candidate from Sultanpur constituency in the next Lok Sabha polls,drawing flak from the Opposition BJP. “Atiq Ahmed has been proved innocent in each of the cases so far. Until someone is proved guilty he cannot be branded as one,” SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters here.“If a case is lodged against you will you be guilty… we have declared candidates for 76 seats… how can you set aside 75 of them on the basis of one person,” he added. Meanwhile,the BJP has criticised Yadav’s statement terming Atiq as innocent and said that Yadav has now taken to being a judge and handing out character

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