SP releases second list of 77 candidates for UP polls

The Samajwadi Party on Sunday released a list of 77 candidates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

The Samajwadi party has nominated their sitting MLAs again from the three crucial seats of Raebareli.

Apart from this, the Samajwadi Party's candidates list also includes the name of a senior leader Om Prakash Singh who was earlier sacked by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in October last year.

Singh will contest election from Zamania constituency of Ghazipur.

Earlier in the day, the Samajwadi Party and Congress vowed to make Akhilesh Yadav the chief minister of the politically crucial state yet again while promising to free the state from communal forces.

The latest political development was confirmed at a joint press briefing addressed by Samajwadi Party's Uttar Pradesh chief Naresh Uttam and Congress' UP unit president Raj Babbar.

As part of the alliance, the Samajwadi Party will contest on 298 seats while the Congress will field its candidates in 105 seats.

The Samajwadi Party earlier on Friday released its first list of 191 candidates for the first three phases of Uttar Pradesh assembly election polls.

However, in a surprising development estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav manages to get a ticket to contest the election from Jaswantnagar constituency, Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad's name does not figure in the list of candidates.

Arvind Singh Gop got a ticket in place of Beni Prasad Verma's son Rakesh Verma.

Naresh Agrawal's son, Nitin Agrawal, got a ticket from Hardoi, whereas Azam Khan's son Abdullah Azam will contest the election from Suar (Rampur).

The poll process in Uttar Pradesh begins on February 11.

73 constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh will go polls in this phase.

The filing of nominations for these constituencies will end on January 24.

Uttar Pradesh is set to have a seven-phase polling between February 11 and March 8.