Samajwadi Party (SP), which had contested 2018 bypoll in alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and a few other smaller parties, had clinched all three Kairana, Phulpur, and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seats from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While the three seats came to the SP under the SP-BSP-RLD pact, months later, under the fresh circumstances, party is not replicating the bypoll scenario.

On Saturday, the SP, which was expected to retain the sitting MP Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel from Phulpur, announced the ticket for Pandhari Yadav, former district president of the SP.

Though the party office-bearers are not citing any specific reasons behind dropping Patel, it is believed that a recent sting by a TV channel purportedly showing him admitting that he has been using money and liquor to win voters cost him the ticket.

“I have no idea why the party did not field me. But the decision of the party is supreme and I will back the candidate fielded by the party wholeheartedly,” said Nagendra.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party following a stalemate between its 2018 Gorakhpur alliance partner, Nishad (Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal) party and subsequent ditching by the small eastern UP party, declared its own candidate--Rambhuaal Nishad on the Gorakhpur seat.

Sources insist the party originally intended to field its sitting MP Praveen Nishad on the seat.

Praveen is the son of Nishad Party president Sanjay Nishad.

Under its strategy to win the Gorakhpur seat, SP president Akhilesh Yadav had allied with the Nishad party and inducted Praveen into his party. The strategy worked and SP won the Gorakhpur seat for the first time.

On March 26, Nishad Party joined the SP-BSP-RLD alliances only to quit the same and join the BJP, all within three days.

Sources said Sanjay Nishad wanted a ticket for himself for Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat along with the son Praveen's Gorakhpur candidature.

The bargain did not suit Akhilesh, and now Praveen Nishad is Sant Kabir Nagar candidate of the BJP. Sanjay Nishad has not been given any ticket by the BJP as well.

In Kairana, where polls took place in the first phase on April 11, during bypoll the SP had inducted RLD’s sitting MP into its fold and fielded her as the SP candidate.

She is one rare candidate who had been in all the three alliance partner parties--SP, RLD, and BSP.

She was BSP MP on the seat from 2009 to 2014. Then she joined the SP.

And for 2018 bypoll on the seat, Akhilesh sent her to Rashtriya Lok Dal to attract RLD votes as well to her along with the SP and the BSP. She won.

Now, for 2019 polls, Akhilesh took the Kairana seat back from RLD and gave Ajit Singh's party the Mathura seat. RLD fielded Narendra Singh from there.

Along with Pandhari Yadav for Phulpur, Samajwadi Party also declared Allahabad ticket for Rajendra Singh Patel. With these, SP now has to declare candidates only on six more seats of its total seat share of 37 under the alliance. BSP got 38 and RLD three. Elections have already taken place on all the three seats that were given to the RLD.

First Published: Apr 21, 2019 09:50 IST