The SP’s list of 321 candidates, announced by Chief Minister and SP president Akhilesh Yadav till date, has ignored 93 names that featured in the list released by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Yadav in December. The current list includes only a handful of candidates pitched by the party patriarch. Among the 93 rejected candidates are gangster Atiq Ahmed from Kanpur Cantonment, gangster-turned-MLA from Gyanpur seat of Bhadohi district and former minister Amarmani Tripathi’s son Amanmani, arrested last year on charges of murdering his wife, from Nautanwa seat of Maharajganj. WATCH VIDEO | UP CM Akhilesh Yadav Claims Samajwadi Party Would Have Won More Than 250 Seats On Its Own Akhilesh has also dropped two ministers, Manpal Singh from Kasganj seat and Vijay Kumar Mishra from Ghazipur seat. Shadab Fatima, MLA from Zahoorabad seat of Ghazipur, who the CM had sacked from his Cabinet, has also been replaced. The candidates whose fates hang in the balance are minister and Mulayam loyalist Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, MLA from Amethi, and QED MLA Sibgatulla Ansari from Mohammadabad seat of Ghazipur. His party merged with SP when Shivpal was state president. His brother, jailed gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar, is said to have decided to contest as an independent against the SP nominee from Mau. Akhilesh has accommodated Sovaran Singh Yadav, MLA from Karhal, who was among the candidates pushed by Mulayam. The CM had earlier named his cousin Anshul Yadav for the seat. Rakesh Verma, son of Rajya Sabha MP Beni Prasad Verma, who was made candidate from Ram Nagar seat of Barabanki by Mulayam in place of minister Arvind Singh Gope, was shifted to Kaiserganj seat of Bahraich by Akhilesh. Rakesh has said he will not contest from Kaiserganj and has not denied rumours that he may join the BJP. Akhilesh rejected the name of Ashish Pandey, son of Mulayam loyalist Jai Shankar Pandey, from Ayodhya and named MLA from the seat Pawan Pandey. He has given a ticket to Jai Shankar from Katehari from neighbouring Ambedkar Nagar district. Aparna Yadav, wife of Mulayam’s other son Prateek, was given a ticket from Lucknow Cantonment in another purported move to placate the SP patriarch.
