SP chief Akhilesh Yadav with Dr Kafeel Khan Suspended Gorakhpur paediatrician Dr Kafeel Khan was among 19 candidates whose names were announced by the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday for the upcoming elections to the Legislative Council. Dr Kafeel will be contesting from the Deoria-Kushinagar seat.
The Election Commission had on February 6 announced that the biennial elections to 36 legislative council seats spread across 35 local bodies in Uttar Pradesh would be rescheduled and held after the state Assembly elections, following the requests of political parties. Polling for all 36 seats will be held on April 9 and the counting of votes will take place on April 12. The term of the 36 outgoing members of the Council ended on March 7.
Confirming Dr Kafeel’s candidature, SP national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, “Yes, his candidature has been finalised. He will be our candidate from the Deoria-Kushinagar seat.”
Dr Kafeel met SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Tuesday, and after the meeting, he tweeted: “Met with Honourable Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav sir and presented him a copy of The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy”
Apart from Dr Kafeel, the SP also announced the candidates from 18 other seats — Rajesh Kumar Yadav (Barabanki), Basudev Yadav (Allahabad), Anurag Verma (Kheri), Manoj Kumar (Jaunpur), Santosh Yadav (Basti-Siddharth Nagar), Rajnish Yadav (Gorakhpur-Maharajganj), Shyam Sundar Singh (Jhansi-Jalaun-Lalitpur), Sunil Kumar Singh (Lucknow-Unnao), Mashakoor Ahmad (Rampur-Bareilly), Virendra Shankar Singh (Rae Bareilly), Hira Lal Yadav (Faizabad), Rakesh Kumar Yadav (Azamgarh-Mau), Udayveer Singh (Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri), Amar Yadav (Bahraich), Umesh (Varanasi), Amit Yadav (Pilibhit-Shahjahanpur), and Dileep Singh Yadav (Agra-Firozabad).
Out of the 18 candidates announced on Tuesday, the SP has repeated six candidates, including Akhilesh’s confidant Udayveer Singh (Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri), Rakesh Kumar Yadav (Azamgarh-Mau), Santosh Yadav (Basti-Siddharth Nagar), Hira Lal Yadav (Faizabad), Rajesh Kumar Yadav (Barabanki) and Amit Yadav (Pilibhit-Shahjahanpur).
A senior SP leader said the decision to repeat these candidates was taken because the SP wanted to throw its weight behind those who were serving as MLCs. “The move shows the party has confidence in them,” he said. Meanwhile, the SP chief on Wednesday made his first public appearance after the Assembly poll results. Akhilesh visited Sitapur and paid tributes to late Mahendra Verma, the brother of former minister and Sitapur Zila Panchayat president Narendra Verma. Mahendra died at a hospital in Delhi four days ago after he fell sick.
On the sidelines of his visit, Akhilesh said, “An increase in our seats and vote share indicates that people have accepted the SP as the BJP’s alternative. People from all sections are with the SP, because of which the SP’s vote share and seats have increased. Just after the elections, the prices have started going up and terrible law and order situation has led to more anger among people.”
Asked about the film, Kashmir Files, the SP chief said a film should also be made on the alleged murder of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, and it should be called Lakhimpur Files.
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