Tamasha bana diya: BSP worker Arshad Rana cries after being denied poll ticket

BSP leader Arshad Rana said he was announced as the possible candidate from Charthawal in 2018, for the upcoming polls. He alleged that he was asked to pay ₹67 lakh for the ticket and has been working in Charthawal for the past four years, hoping to be fielded.

A video of BSP worker Arshad Rana sobbing inconsolably after being denied a ticket in the upcoming election in Uttar Pradesh has surfaced on Friday. "Tamasha bana diya (They made a joke out of me). I never thought this would happen. You promise me a ticket and then you give it to someone else. You people must have been seeing the daily advertisements on paper and the hoardings. I did everything," the BSP leader said.

BSP leader Arshad Rana alleged that he was asked to pay ₹67 lakh for the ticket. 

Here is the video

"I have been working for the party for 24 years. On December 18, 2018, I was formally declared the possible candidate from Charthawal for the 2022 polls. Since then, I have been working here for four years," Arshad Rana said.

Dejected Rana has made a long post on Facebook, describing what has happened. In the post, he has also threatened to end his life.

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According to Rana, Shamsuddin Raeen had announced him as the possible candidate in 2018. For the last past months, Reen had stopped all contacts with Rana. Now, another leader Satish Kumar has asked for another ₹50 lakh. "I told him that I will talk to my mother first. As I discussed with my mother, she said that we do not have that much money, but we can sell some property to fulfil my ambition of contesting the election. So I called Satish Kumar ji and told him that I can give ₹25 lakh now and the rest will be paid later. He told me not to say these things explicitly over thephone. I asked him shall I say ₹25 instead of ₹25 lakh. I have evidence of all this," Rana said.

On January 13, BSP supremo Mayawati announced the name of Salman Saeed as the candidate from Charthwal assembly seat, the very day Salman Saeed joined the party from the Congress. “Salman Saeed, son of former UP home minister, Sayeduzzaman, a native of Muzaffarnagar district, met the BSP chief late night on January 12. He informed that he has left the Congress and wished to join the Bahujan Samaj Party,” Mayawati tweeted on Thursday.

BSP is contesting all 403 seats in the upcoming election, starting from February 19, though Mayawati will not contest.