SP begins preparations for LS polls

Yesterday was the last day for application for partys candidature for next Lok Sabha elections. The party has received 900 applications. The parliamentary board today decided to send observers to 58 Lok Sabha seats where we do not have MPs for selecting suitable candidates. Observers will send their reports to the party leadership within seven days after their visits, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said.

The parliamentary board also decided against giving tickets to sitting MLAs for the Lok Sabha polls,he added.

And as part of its preparations for the next election,the party is likely to take steps to fulfill its campaign promise of giving Muslim job reservation in proportion to their population. Sources said the Akhilesh Yadav government will get the Assembly to pass a resolution in the ongoing session or the next one urging the Centre to remove legal hurdles in implementing its poll promise.

BSP MPs son joins Samajwadi Party
LUCKNOW: Naheed Munawwar,the son of BSP MP Tabassum Hasan,joined the SP on Monday. Scores of Naheeds supporters followed him to the SP. Nasheed was the BSP candidate from Gangoh Assembly seat in the last election but was dropped after his name figured in a sting operation. He contested as an Independent but lost.

Naheeds father Choudhary Munawwar Hasan was a two-term SP MP before he left for the BSP during the trust vote against the UPA government on the issue of the India-US nuclear deal in July 2008. He died in a road accident not long after.