Offbeat party names flavour of poll season

Ghaziabad/Noida: Rakesh Suri (42), a computer operator with a private firm, is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Ghaziabad on a ‘Right to Recall’ party ticket. The party’s aim, as the name suggests, is to spread awareness among citizens on the proposal for recalling political leaders who do not fulfil their promises. The one-month-old party plans to contest 11 seats across the country.
Like the ‘Right to Recall’ party, several outfits fighting this year’s elections from Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad have interesting names — Aapki Apni Party Peoples (AAP-P), Sabse Achchi Party (SAP) and Subhashwadi Bhartiya Samajwadi Party (SBSP), among others.

SBSP, which was registered in February, plans to field candidates from 16 seats across the country, out of which 10 are in Uttar Pradesh alone. Its spokesperson Satendra Yadav described the party as a group of activists who have been working for the society for the past 30 years.

The party has fielded Ashok Sharma, district president of Sanyukta Vyapar Mandal, from Ghaziabad.

Sharma said his party’s core values are based on Indian culture and respect for freedom fighters and martyrs, and it believes in propagating socialist ideas.

“Whether I win or not is a different issue altogether. It is about representing an idea,” said Sharma.

The party had contested the Ghaziabad mayoral election in 2017 and its candidate Romi Mathur had garnered over 2,300 votes. BJP’s Asha Sharma had polled 2,82,738 votes and won.

An automobile mechanic, Salim Ahmad, is SAP’s Ghaziabad nominee. The party’s state president, Rizwan Haidri, said it was registered in June last year and has a presence in 40 districts of the state.

“Our party gives a chance to youths who are otherwise given menial jobs in elections. We want to bring change and only youngsters can do that,” Haidri added.

Interestingly, the name Sabse Achchi Party (meaning the best party) came into existence after an objection was raised over the party’s initial choice of ‘Islamic Democratic Party’.

“After we applied for the registration, people raised objection saying that it had religious connotations. So we shifted to the present name,” Haidri added.

Meanwhile, in Gautam Budh Nagar, Dayaram Singh is contesting from Aapki Apni Party - Peoples. A resident of tehsil Khurja in Bulandshahr district, 76-year-old Singh was earlier a member of the Jewar panchayat. “We will fight for the rights for all, without any caste or creed prejudice,” said Singh.

Rambir Chauhan, its national head, told TOI that the party, formed on November 26, 2017, is contesting on 57 seats across India. “We have not come with any manifesto. Instead we have come with a vision document where we have decried capitalist money in elections. The party is contesting for justice for all, irrespective of caste, creed or religion,” said Chauhan.