Will it be Ravidas Vs. Rajnath? Suspense continues

The officials said they would wait till May 6 for the withdrawal of papers by one of the SP candidates. If that did not happen, the district administration would consider Ravidas as its official candidate and papers of Ashutosh Verma would be rejected.

Lucknow The Samajwadi Party office is abuzz with discussions and speculations, after two people, Ravidas Mehrotra and Dr Ashutosh Verma filed nomination papers as party candidates for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat.

Ravidas Mehrotra claimed that he was the party’s official candidate and he did campaigning in many areas of Alambagh. (HT FILE)

Ravidas Mehrotra, a sitting MLA from Lucknow is the party’s veteran leader whereas Dr Ashutosh Verma is new in the party and according to insiders, has been made to file nomination papers only as a substitute candidate. .

Sources in the district administration said that papers of Ravidas Mehrotra were found to be valid. The officials would wait till May 6 for the withdrawal of papers by one of the SP candidates. If that did not happen, the district administration would consider Ravidas as its official candidate and papers of Ashutosh Verma would be rejected.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) let Verma file nomination papers from the Lucknow seat on Friday, the last day of filing nominations, after the original candidate Ravidas Mehrotra had filed his papers on Wednesday. This was ostensibly done as some issues were pointed out in his papers. However, on Saturday evening news went around that the flaws found in Ravidas’s nomination had been removed and the returning officer found his papers valid.

Ravidas Mehrotra claimed that he was the party’s official candidate and he did campaigning in many areas of Alambagh.

Meanwhile, leaders and workers kept walking in and out of the SP office throughout the day. Among those who visited the office were advocate Jagannath Yadav, former general secretary of Lucknow Bar Association Jitendra Singh Yadav (Jitu), former vice president, Lucknow Bar Adesh Yadav, state vice president, Advocate Sabha Ramnath, state secretary Faisal Mehbool Khan and a large number of party leaders and workers.

The Lucknow seat is traditionally considered a BJP bastion, from where defence minister Rajnath Singh is contesting.

The million-dollar question is what will the SP do with Dr Ashutosh Verma who is also 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.

The day before Verma filed his papers, 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 Verma’s nomination.