UP CM’s associates missing from 325 candidates list of SP

Lucknow: Ruling out any pre-poll alliance or bickering within the family, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today released a list of 325 candidates for the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, denying tickets to several ministers of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Several sitting legislators have been dropped, including expelled party leader and state forest minister Tej Narain Pandey alias Pawan Pandey, who has been denied ticket from Ayodhya. Another close confidant of Mr Akhilesh, Rural Development Minister Arvind Singh Gope has not been given ticket from Ramnagar seat of Barabanki.

UP Panchayati Raj Minister Ram Govind Choudhury was also denied ticket from Basdih seat in Ballia district. Of the announced candidates, 176 were sitting MLAs of the party, while rest of 149 are those who had lost their seats in 2012. Mulayam's daughter-in-law, Aparna Yadav, who is the wife of Prateek Yadav has been given ticket from Lucknow Cantonment seat, while state minister Mohammad Azam Khan's son Abdullah Azam gets ticket from Swar Tanda seat in Rampur. Former Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma's son Rakesh has been given ticket from Rampur in Barabanki in place of the sitting UP Minister Arvind Singh Gope.

 In Ayodhya seat, the party has fielded a new entrant Ashish Pandey alias Dipu Pandey. However, the bickering within the family seem to continue as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was not present in the press meet to announce the candidates, while state president Shivpal Singh Yadav and his supporters stole the show. Addressing a press conference, Mr Mulayam said there would be no pre-poll alliance in the elections and stressed that no announced names would be changed in the future. He said candidates for rest of the 78 seats would be announced soon. (UNI)