After denying ticket to mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed’s wife, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati made a swift move to check erosion of Muslims vote in the on-going urban local bodies polls.

Sources said that Mayawati has decided to field the wife of Imran Masood's brother on the mayoral seat in Saharanpur.

According to sources, the BSP has given a ticket to Khadija Masood, wife of Imran Masood's cousin Shazan, as party’s mayoral candidate from Saharanpur.

Imran Masood is BSP in-charge of UP west and the party had earlier declared his wife as mayoral candidate from Saharanpur.

The Saharanpur mayoral seat is reserved for OBC this time. In such a situation, the electoral equation seems to be changing. The BSP cut the ticket of Shaista Parveen, wife of Atiq Ahmad, whom the party had earlier made its candidate for the mayoral seat from Prayagraj.

Sources said that fearing that Muslims might distance themselves from the BSP, Mayawati cleared the name of Khadija Masood.

Meanwhile, Congress, which always lags behind other parties in declaring candidates for elections, surprised everyone by announcing candidates for 15 wards of Lucknow.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Brijlal Khabri said, “Yes, we have shortlisted candidates for all the seats in 17 municipal corporations, 199 municipal boards (nagar palika parishads) and 544 town areas (nagar panchayats) of the state. Though a list of the party’s organisational teams is yet to be released, we have informed the new office-bearers about the work allocation through phone.”

The Congress is making a desperate bid to improve its performance and make the party an important player in the urban local bodies polls, scheduled on May 4 and 11 in Uttar Pradesh.

At present, poor organisational structure at different levels poses a big challenge for the party as it is still in the process of constituting teams at state, zonal and district levels for the urban local body elections.

Meanwhile, a scrutiny of performance of different political parties indicates that the Congress put up a poor show in 2017 urban local bodies elections. The Congress had failed to win any seat of mayor in the state in 17 municipal corporations.

The UP Congress has also opened a ‘war room’ on the premises of its headquarters in Lucknow to organise and monitor the ongoing month-long ‘Jai Bharat Satyagraha’ in the state. The initiative is a part of the pan-India drive launched by the party on March 29.