SP leadership to take stock of ticket resentment

After reports of protests against party candidates for the Lok Sabha seats from several districts, the Samajwadi Party will review the situation during at a meeting of district and city unit presidents here on Wednesday. Besides party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, the meeting will also be addressed by the party's national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav.

In the five-point agenda for the meeting, review of Lok Sabha candidates tops the list. The party had declared its first list of 55 candidates on November 16 and a second list of eight candidates and one change in first list on November 19. Both lists were declared by Ramgopal.

Soon after the list was declared, several units expressed their resentment over the selection. The first rejection came against Arun Kumar Shukla Anna from Unnao, where district unit president Anwar Ahmed bluntly told Mulayam that Anna will lose the election and he could not support him. Anna had contested the previous election on a BSP ticket from Unnao.

At Etah, Ramgopal's relative MLA Rameshwar Yadav objected against the nomination of Devendra Singh. In Meerut, many leaders are against Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shahid Manzoor's brother Shams Parvez and complaints have reached Mulayam Singh's office. In Agra, SP workers have opened a front against Mahraj Singh Dhanghar.

MLA Mitrasen Yadav, who was keen to contest from Faizabad, has now reportedly staked claim on Sultanpur where the SP has fielded Shakeel Ahmad. At Barabanki, former MP Ram Sagar is openly holding meetings against party candidate Rajrani Rawat. At Azamgarh, SP workers had staged a demonstration outside the party office demanding that Mulayam Singh's younger son Prateek Yadav be fielded in place of Panchayati Raj Minister Balram Yadav.

In Jhansi, Chandra Bhushan alias Guddu Raja, who had contested the 2012 Assembly election from Lalitpur, has announced that he will not be able to support Chandrapal Singh Yadav, the party candidate.

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