It’s Maharaj vs Maharaj in Unnao as SP replaces Puja with Anna against Sakshi

LUCKNOW: Sensing a wave of resentment among Brahmins in Unnao parliamentary constituency against BJP candidate Sakshi Maharaj, Samajwadi Party swiftly replaced its candidate Puja Pal with a Brahmin face, Anna Maharaj, to woo the community.
Arun Shankar Shukla alias Anna contested 2014 polls and bagged the second slot against BJP’s Sakshi Maharaj, an OBC, who won Unnao.

Anna is the first Brahmin candidate in the candidate list of Samajwadi Party, which has so far announced nearly 30 candidates of 37 the party intends to contest in alliance with BSP and RLD in 80 parliamentray seats.

Majority candidates in the Samajwadi Party list are from party’s traditional social base, Muslims and Yadavs. As the Brahmin community was feeling abandoned in ticket distribution process, the SP leadership decided to field Anna Shukla and withdraw Puja Pal, an OBC of shepherd caste from the fray.

From among upper castes, the party has already given a ticket to Rajput, Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pundit Singh from Gonda and one Vaishya in Ghaziabad.

Apart from the fact that Samajwadi Party fielded Anna to assuage Brahmin sentiments within the party, another factor behind the change of heart in the party leadership was the anger among Brahmins in Unnao against Sakshi for his alleged anti-upper caste utterances in recent past. Brahmins in Unnao are in sizeable numbers and in a position to tip the scales for any party.

Another reason behind Anna joining the fray from Unnao, was a technical problem in the candidature of Puja Pal whose husband Raju Pal had been killed a few years back in Allahabad, now renamed Prayagraj.

Most of her legal documents are in the name of her late husband Raju Pal though she has recently married a Kurmi leader.

This technical issue could have led to cancellation of her nomination also. So, the party changed her candidature to Anna Shukla.