Tags:
Journalism of Courage
A DAY after the the Congress announced 11 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) Friday declared candidates for nine seats, including party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri, party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife and sitting MP Dimple Yadav from Kannauj and cousins and sitting MPs Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav from Badaun and Firizabad, respectively. Last year, Akhilesh had announced that Dimple would not contest the 2019 elections and instead he would contest from Kannauj.
In Etawah, Robertsganj, Bahraich and Hardoi (all reserved seats), the party has fielded Kamlesh Katheria, Bhailal Kol, Shabbir Valmiki and Usha Verma. Poorvi Verma has been declared the party’s candidate from Kheri.
In the 2014 elections, Mulayam had contested from Azamgarh and Mainpuri seats and won both. He had decided to retain Azamgarh and left Mainpuri where his grand nephew (nephew’s son), Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, contested in the bypoll and was elected.
In Mainpuri, Mulayam had secured 5,95,918 votes (59.63%) and had defeated BJP’s Shatrughan Singh Chauhan who had secured 2,31,252 votes (23.14%). BSP’s Sanghmitra Maurya had stood third with 1,42,833 votes (14.29%).
Mulayam had defeated BJP’s Ramakant Yadav in Azamgarh, securing 3,40,306 votes (35.43%). Ramakant had got 2,77,102 votes (28.85%) while BSP’s Shah Alam had stood third with 2,66,528 votes (27.75%).
In Kannauj, Dimple had secured 4,89,164 votes (43.89%), while BJP’s Subrat Pathak had lost by a narrow margin securing 4,69,257 votes (42.11%). BSP’s Nirmal Tiwari had stood third with 1,27,785 votes (11.47%).
Dharmendra Yadav had won from Badaun in 2014 getting 4,98,378 votes (48.50%). BJP’s Vagish Pathak had come second with 3,32,031 (32.31%) while BSP candidate Akmal Khan was third with 1,56,973 votes (15.27).
Dharmendra had won 2009 seats too after defeating Dharam Yadav of the BSP, who secured 2,01,202 votes (27.29%) and Saleem Iqbal Shervani of the Congress who managed to get 1,93,834 votes (26.29%). Shervani, who is a five-time MP from the same seat, was named by the Congress on Thursday evening from Badaun seat.
Akshay Yadav has been fielded from Firozabad seat again. In 2014, he had won the seat after securing 5,34,583 votes (48.93%) and had defeated BJP’s SP Singh Baghel who had got 4,20,524 votes (38.07%). BSP’s Vishwadeep Singh had stood third with 1,18,909 votes (10.76%).
Akshay’s uncle and SP rebel Shivpal Yadav, who founded Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) a few months ago, has already announced that he would contest from Firozabad.
In last elections, SP had fielded Premdas Katheria from Etawah. Premdas had secured 2,66,700 (28.38%) votes and had lost to BJP’s Ashok Kumar Dohrey who had secured 4,39,646 (46.78%). BSP had fielded Ajay Pal Singh Jatav who had got 1,92,804 votes (20.51%).
In 2014, BJP candidate Chhotelal had won the Robertsganj seat with 3,78,211 votes (42.69%) after defeating SP’s Pakaudi Lal Kol who had got 1,35,966 votes (15.35%), while BSP’s Sharada Prasad had secured 1,87,725 votes (21.19%).
In 2014, the BJP’s Savitri Bai Phule had won the Bahraich seat with 4,32,392 votes (46.28%) while SP’s Shabbir Valmiki, who has been fielded again from the seat by the party, was the runner up with 3,36,767 votes (36.04%), while BSP candidate Vijay Kumar had secured 96,904 votes (10.37%). Savitri Bai resigned from BJP last year and joined the Congress recently.
The Hardoi seat was won by BJP’s Anshul Verma, who secured 3,60,501(37.05%), while BSP’s Shive Prasad Verma stood second and secured 2,79,158 votes (28.69%). SP’s Usha Verma, who has been fielded again, came third with 2,76,543 votes (28.42%).
In 2014, the SP had fielded Ravi Prakash Verma from Kheri and he stood fourth in the contest getting 1,60,112 votes (14.85%) and lost to BJP’s Ajay Kumar who secured 3,98,578 votes (36.98%). BSP’s Arvind Giri had stood second with 2,88,304 votes(26.75%), while Congress’s Zafar Ali Naqvi stood third with 1,83,940 votes (17.06%). SP has fielded Ravi Prakash’s daughter, Poorvi Verma, from the seat this time.
The SP released a list of six contenders Friday morning and announced the candidature of Dimple, Poorvi Verma and Usha Verma in the evening after which Akhilesh tweeted, “On the occasion of #InternationaWomensDay the Samajwadi Party reaffirms its commitment to equality for all and is proud to announce some of its women candidates…”
