Kairana bypoll: RLD releases list of star campaigners

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on Saturday released the list of star campaigners for Kairana Lok Sabha bypoll.

The list also contains names of Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, Senior (SP) leader Azam Khan and National president of Indian New Congress Party (INCP) Ayub Khan.

In the list of 40 star campaigners released by RLD chief Ajit Singh, former member of Rajya Sabha Amir Alam Khan, Nawazish Alam and SP leader Nahid Hassan are also included.

The SP leaders, who have included star campaigners in the list, includes-- Kiranmayi Nanda, Surendra Nagar, Balram Yadav, Naresh Uttam, Sunil Lathar, Rajendra Chaudhary, Ahmed Hassan, Kamal Akhtar, Sunil Yadav, Brajesh Yadav and Pradeep.

Leaders like former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav and SP leader and Jaswantnagar MLA Shivpal Yadav are not on the list.

The Kairana by-election comes after the BJP's loss in the Gorakhpur by-poll in the state.

The by-poll was necessitated by the death of BJP Leader Hukum Singh, and his daughter Mriganka Singh became the normal choice for BJP to battle it out in the communally charged Kairana.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also expected to hold rallies in Kairana ahead of the by-poll.

The Kairana Lok Sabha seat has around 17 lakh voters, including three lakh Muslims, four lakh backward castes (Jat, Gujjar, Saini, Kashyap, Prajapati and others) and about 1.5 lakh Dalits.

Voting for the Kairana bypolls will be held on May 28 and the results will be declared on May 31.