Mr & Mrs Aspirants slug it out for SP, BSP in Kanpur seats

During last Lok Sabha elections, Rajaram Pal of BSP won from Bilhaur with whopping 2.3 lakh votes, but his candidature was terminated due to his alleged involvement in the cash-for-question scam. Since then, the Bilhaur parliamentary seat had fallen vacant. In this ‘couple’ offer, SP has the upper hand. While Aruna Tomar is sitting MLA from Sarsaul, Lal Singh Tomar had contested the Lok Sabha election against Rajaram Pal of BSP from Bilhaur and emerged second with 2 lakh votes. As far as BSP is concerned, both Anil Shukla and wife Pratibha are new faces for an electoral battle. Poll observers, meanwhile, say two members from the same family should not be given tickets. The reason: By-poll candidates would not be able to concentrate on their own constituencies in order to save seats for the better half. Tomar said they were confident as he was close second to Rajaram Pal during last elections while his wife was the sitting MLA. Apart from the ‘couple’ factor, the SP-BSP clash would heavily depend on the caste calculations in Bilhaur.