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SP may soon declare its pick for Kundarki; 3-time MLA ‘front-runner’
The Samajwadi Party may announce its Kundarki candidate soon, with former MLA Haji Mohd Rizwan as a frontrunner ahead of November bypolls.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) might soon announce its candidate for the poll-bound Kundarki assembly seat in Moradabad district, said sources in the party on Sunday when SP chief Akhilesh Yadav met party workers from the constituency, in Lucknow.
A bypoll is due in Kundarki in November and the nomination process is already underway.
Among the names doing the rounds, former MLA Haji Mohd Rizwan was being considered the front-runner, they said, indicating that the Ghaziabad and Khair (Aligarh) seats had been left for the Congress, which might announce its picks for them soon.
The sources stated that the meeting between party activists from Kundarki and Akhilesh at the party headquarters lasted till 4 pm, and an announcement regarding the candidate could be made within 24 hours.
“The party will be giving preference to the old guards who have some experience in contesting elections. The name for Kundarki will be announced soon. Also, the party has given two seats to the Congress. Now it’s up to the party (the Congress) to announce its candidates,” said a senior SP leader.
Rizwan is a three-time MLA from Kundarki and had won from the seat in 2002, 2012 and 2017.
On Thursday, the SP named former Rajya Sabha MP from the Bahujan Samaj Party Munkad Ali’s daughter Sumbul Rana as the party’s seventh candidate for the Meerapur assembly bypolls. It is, however, yet to field its candidates for Ghaziabad Sadar, Khair (Aligarh) and Kundarki. It might announce its pick for Kundarki and leave the other two for the Congress, people familiar with the matter said.
Akhilesh’s cousin Tej Pratap Yadav will be representing the SP in the Karhal contest. Naseem Siddiqui, the wife of disqualified SP MLA Irfan Solanki, has been picked for Sisamau; Ajeet Prasad, the son of Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, for Milkipur in Ayodhya; Shobhawati Verma, the wife of the party’s Ambedkarnagar MP Lalji Verma, for Katehri; Mustafa Siddiqui for Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Jyoti Bind from Majhawan (Mirzapur).
BOX Don’t trust roads in U.P: Akhilesh
Lucknow: Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday came down on the BJP government in the state over ‘rising’ road accidents and deaths caused by them. He urged people to not trust “the BJP’s corruption-hit roads and traffic system”, and warn their children about the dangers of the road. In a statement issued on Sunday, Akhilesh Yadav said, “In the BJP government, traffic rules are not followed, they are exploited. The BJP government is not interested in implementing the rules. Their entire focus is on recovery and extortion. In the BJP government, huge corruption is taking place in the name of filling potholes on the roads. There is a complete loot of the budget. Corruption and loot are at their peak in the BJP government. The entire government is a victim of inefficiency. The BJP government does not care about the lives of the common people.”
