SP announces 209 candidates, Akhilesh accommodates Mulayam's men

The ruling Samajwadi Party on Friday released its first and second lists for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, within a span of hours. A total of 209 tickets have hence been declared.

Burying the acrimony behind him, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seems to have struck a reconciliatory note with his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and has accomodated people close to him, including his bete noire Shivpal Singh Yadav, with whome he was daggers drawn not too long ago.

In the first list major names were of Shivpal Singh Yadav, Urban Development Minister Mohd Azam Khan and Rural Development Minister Arvind Singh Gope. The second list had the names of close Akhilesh Yadav aides Pawan Pandey (Ayodhya), Anand Sen Yadav (Bikapur) and Yasir Shah from Matera among others.

Avdhesh Prasad has been fielded from Milkipur, Abas Ali Zaidi from Rudauli, Abhay Singh from Gosaiganj, Azeem-ul-Haq Pehelwan from Tanda, Shankh Lal Majhi from Jalalpur, Jai Shankar Pandey from Katehri, Ram Moorti Verma (Akbarpur), Vanshidhar Baudh from Balha, Rauab Sayeda from Bahraich and Mukesh Srivastava from Prayagpur.

Rakesh Verma, son of former union minister Beni Prasad Verma, has been accommodated from Qaiserganj. He was earlier given ticket in place of minister Arvind Singh Gope from a Barabanki seat, leading to tensions between the Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav camps.

Indrani Verma has been named the candidate from Bhinga, Mohd Ramzan from Shrawasti, Mohammad Mahsood Khan from Tulsipur ad Dr SP Yadav from Gaisadi.A

Gaurav Swaroop has been named candidate from Muzaffarnagar, Uma Kiran from Purkazi, Nahid Hasan from Kairana, Manish Chauhan from Shamli, Mukesh Chowdhary from Charthawal assembly constituency, Rafiq Ansari from Meerut and Aadil Chowdhary from Meerut (South), in the first list of 191 candidates.

The party has also announced tickets from neighbouring regions of New Delhi. Virendra Yadav is the candidate from Sahibabad, Surendra Kumar from Muradnagar, Sunil Chowdhary from Noida, Sujat Aalam from Bulandshahr, Pramod Tyagi from Budhana, Rakesh Sharma from Shikarpur, Nand Kishore Valmiki from Khurja, Subhash Pal from Barauli and Rakesh Singh rom Charra among others.

--IANS

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