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SP releases list of candidates for 191 seats, including Noida
The SP list includes candidates for Noida, Jewar and Dadri seats in Gautam Budh Nagar
The Samajwadi Party (SP) fielded Sunil Chaudhary from Noida assembly constituency, Rajkumar Bhati from Dadri and Narendra Nagar from Jewar assembly constituencies respectively in its list released on Friday.
The party released the names of candidates for 191 out of the state’s 403 seats on Friday after an alliance with the Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) did not materialise. However, efforts are reportedly still underway to form an alliance with the Congress while the RLD is likely to fight assembly elections alone.
Polling for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections is scheduled to take place on February 11 in Gautam Budh Nagar’s three assembly seats of Noida, Dadri and Jewar. The last date to file nominations for the three seats is January 24 and results will be out on March 11.
Noida candidate Chaudhary had also fought the 2012 assembly elections for SP from the same seat. He had secured third position with 42,071 votes out of a total of 2,09,705 polled. The seat was won by BJP’s Dr Mahesh Sharma with 77,319 votes while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had come in second with 49,643 votes.
Chaudhary, who owns Dharam Palace, an office building in the Sector 18 commercial area had joined SP in 2011, ahead of the 2012 assembly elections.
According to sources, Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Nagar, who was earlier the Lok Sabha MP from the district, has played a crucial role in the selection of the three candidates from Gautam Budh Nagar, who are also close to him.
Earlier, when chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle Shivpal Yadav had the upper hand in the party, the SP had fielded Ashok Chauhan from Noida, Ravinder Bhati from Dadri and Bevan Nagar from Jewar.
“Now, we have finalised our three candidates and they are likely to file their nominations very soon. We are not thinking of making any changes in candidates now and will begin our election campaign,” said Surendra Nagar.
The Congress is also supposed to field candidates from Noida and the other two seats in the district soon.
“As the SP is doing things as per its own convenience, the alliance will not take place. We are now busy finalising candidates from all 403 assembly seats, including Noida. The Congress is likely to field candidates from all seats on Saturday,” said Rajendra Awana, organisational secretary in the Uttar Pradesh Congress committee. BJP leaders too said they are likely to name their Noida candidate soon.
