Battle for UP: BSP fields Muslim candidate against Yogi Adityanath

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The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded a Muslim candidate, Khwaja Shamsuddin, from the prestigious Gorakhpur Urban Assembly seat against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who filed his nomination for the Uttar Pradesh polls two days ago.

Shamsuddin replaces Lalit Kumar Bihari, whose name the BSP had announced earlier for the seat.

Contesting the Assembly election for the first time, he is a BSP sector in-charge who has been working for the party in Gorakhpur district for 20 years.

He had earlier contested the local bodies' election as a BSP candidate.

A trader by profession, he also headed the BSP Muslim Bhaichara committee to mobilise the support of the community for the party.

Shamsuddin's name is among the 54 candidates that BSP chief Mayawati has announced in 10 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh that will go to polls in the sixth phase on March 3. Gorakhpur is among these seats.

The previous BSP candidate from Gorakhpur Urban, Lalit Kumar Bihari, had contested the 2012 Assembly election on the Janata Dal (U) ticket.

After Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad announced he would contest the polls from the Gorakhpur Urban seat, the BSP changed its candidate and decided to field Shamsuddin.

In this list, the BSP has given tickets to 19 candidates belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 17 upper castes, 11 Dalits and seven Muslims.

Among the other seats, the BSP has fielded Santosh Tiwari from Fazilnagar where former minister Swami Prasad Maurya is contesting the election on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket.

Maurya, who quit the BJP and formally joined the SP on January 14, is also a former BSP state president. The BSP plans to challenge Maurya with a Dalit-Brahmin coalition in Fazilnagar.

Prateek Pandey, son of former Shiv Sena MLA Pawan Pandey, has been fielded from Katehri in Ambedkar Nagar district against BSP rebel and former minister Lalji Verma, who is now with the SP.

Chandra Prakash Verma, who defected to the BSP from the BJP, has been fielded from Akbarpur against former BSP national general secretary Ram Achal Rajbhar, who has also joined the SP.

The BSP has fielded Deepak Agarwal, who was once a close aide of Yogi Adityanath, from Pipraich.

Agarwal had contested the 2002 Assembly election on the Hindu Mahasabha ticket after Yogi Adityanath's relations with the BJP soured before the polls that year.

BSP legislature party leader (Assembly) Uma Shankar Singh has been given the party ticket from his traditional seat Rasda in Ballia district.

The BSP has fielded former minister Raj Kishore Singh from Harraiya in Basti district and Mohammad Tabish Khan from Mehdawal assembly seat in Sant Kabir Nagar district.

Anju Singh has been fielded from Sahjanwa seat in Gorakhpur district. She is the wife of Sudhir Singh, known for muscle power.

A former serviceman, Angad Mishra is the BSP candidate from Bairiya in Ballia district.

The BSP has fielded Parvez Alam from Pathardewa against state agriculture minister and BJP candidate Surya Pratap Shahi.

Uttar Pradesh goes to polls in seven phases between February 10 and March 7 to elect 403 members of the state Assembly.

The results will be declared on March 10.

--IANS

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