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Ashutosh Verma files papers from Lucknow as SP’s substitute candidate
The SP had been getting information that Ravidas Mehrotra was not campaigning well and his nomination papers were not in good shape, due to which the party feared a Khajuraho-like situation, says senior leader
LUCKNOW To avoid a “Khajuraho-like situation” on the Lucknow seat wherein Union defence minister Rajnath Singh could get a walkover, the Samajwadi Party (SP) changed its candidate on the last day of nomination filing even after the original candidate, Ravidas Mehrotra, had filed his nomination on Wednesday. Now, Dr Ashutosh Verma is the SP’s candidate for the Lucknow seat.
Now that both Mehrotra and Verma have filed their papers as SP candidates, there’s uncertainty as to who will eventually take on Rajnath Singh.
On Friday, the SP made its national spokesperson, Dr Ashutosh Verma, a medical professional, file a nomination at the Lucknow collectorate by allotting him the party symbol and ‘form A & B’.
The day before Verma filed his nomination, SP president Akhilesh Yadav had written to the returning officer, Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency, urging him to consider Verma as the substitution for Ravidas Mehrotra.
Under the circumstances, either Mehrotra will have to withdraw his nomination or during the scrutiny, based on Akhilesh’s letter, the RO might reject Mehrotra’s nomination.
The SP had faced an embarrassment after it’s Khajuraho candidate Meera Yadav’s nomination got rejected. As the Congress had given the MP’s Khajuraho seat to the SP, there was no INDIA bloc candidate against the BJP.
“The SP had been getting information that Ravidas Mehrotra was not campaigning well and he had also not been supporting party workers for his campaign. Akhilesh had even warned Mehrotra nearly three weeks back. Besides, there was information that his nomination papers were not in good shape and the party feared the Khajuraho-like situation,” said a senior SP leader.
Dr Ashutosh Verma is a paediatrician and calls himself a “child specialist by profession and politician by passion”. He is an alumnus of GSVM (Kanpur medical college) and had also studied medicine at the King George’s Medical University, Lucknow.
On the other hand, Ravidas Mehrotra is the SP MLA from Lucknow Central assembly constituency and former UP minister.
Rajnath Singh won the Lucknow seat in 2014 and 2019 and is looking to win it for the third time in a row. On the other hand, the SP has never won the Lucknow seat and the seat is with the BJP since 1991.
It remains to be seen to what extent Verma would give a fight to Rajnath.
