Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary during a joint rally in Meerut. (Twitter/samajwadiparty) The Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance on Thursday announced its first set of 29 candidates for seats in western Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in the state. Out of the 29, the RLD will contest in 19 seats and the SP in 10.
The seats for which the alliance announced candidates are in Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Agra, Bijnor, Baghpat, Hapur, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bulandshahr and Mathura districts. Tickets have been announced for seats going to polls in the first, second and third phases.
The notification for the first phase nomination will be on January 14, and polling will take place on February 10. In the second phase, the notification will be issued on January 21, and polling will be on February 14. For third phase, the notification will be done on January 25, and polling will be held on February 20.
Of the 29 candidates announced on Thursday, Babita Devi, who will contest from Baldev constituency for the RLD, is the only woman. Agra Rural, Agra Cantt, Baldev, Khair, Purqazi and Hapur are reserved seats for candidates from the Scheduled Castes (SC).
Among leaders who joined the alliance from other parties whose candidature was announced are former BJP MLA from Meerapur and four-time MP, Avtar Singh Bhadana, who had joined the RLD on Wednesday. He has been fielded on an RLD ticket from Jewar in Gautam Budh Nagar. Four-time MLA Gajraj Singh, who joined RLD from Congress on Thursday, has been fielded on an RLD ticket from Hapur.
Pankaj Malik, who has been fielded from Charthawal (Muzaffarnagar), is a former Congress MLA from Shamli who had joined the SP recently along with father and senior Congress leader Harendra Malik.
Haji Yunus, who had joined the RLD in December from the BSP, has been fielded from Bulandshahr Sadar seat. Yunus’s convoy was attacked in Bulandshahr, a day after he joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal. One person was killed in the attack while four others were hospitalised. Police had said Yunus has accused his nephew Anas Alim of being behind the attack. Yunus, the former block pramukh from Sadar, is the brother of former BSP MLA Haji Alim, who was murdered in 2018.
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