With nascent partners Congress and Samajwadi Party locking horns in over a dozen seats so far with candidates from both hues filing their nominations, lucknow presents the most curious picture.
The Congress top brass has given symbols to five candidates but have shied away from declaring them as official candidates so far even even as the last date of withdrawl being over on Friday afternoon.
In western UP too, four candidates were given the Congress symbol but their names did not figure in the party’s list of candidates.
While nomination of Congress candidate Harshvardan from Mohanlalganj (Reserved) seat was cancelled during scrutiny, another Naresh Valmiki, was forced to withdraw in favour of Samajwadi Party candidate from the same seat.
In lucknow Central segment, Maroof Khan had filed his papers on the direction of Congress honcho Ghulam Nabi Azad, even as his name did not figure in the All India Congress Committee list released by general secretary Madhusudan Mistri so far.
Meanwhile, SP’s Ravidas Malhotra too filed his papers from the same seat and both had not withdrawn their names even as the last date expired on Friday.
Interestingly, some UPCC office bearers tried to contact Khan over phone through out Friday, but he did not take any calls ostensibly to remain in the fray.
like other Congress candidates, SP leader Anurag Singh Bhadauria has been given Congress’ symbol and contesting from lucknow (East) but the party has not declared his name officially.
Congress sources confirmed that to sort out seat sharing squabble, the UP Congress Committee has already dispatched a list of disputed seats to AICC leaders where SP candidates have refused to withdraw as per the terms of the alliance.
The list includes Purqazi (Reserved) where Congress’ Deepak and SP’s Uma Kiran and Chandpur where Congress’ Sherbaz Khan and SP’s Mohamed Arshad were in the fray.
likewise, Congress candidate Vivek Bansal filed his papers from Kol seat along with SP’s Anju Ishaq and at Gangoh, Congress nominee Noman Ahmed Masood and SP’s Indrasen are cloked in the spar. Incidetnally, both Bansal and Masood do not figure in the AICC official list despite the party symbol being given to them.
The other seats in third and fourth phases where candidates from both parties are in the fray include Bhognipur of Kanpur Dehat (Congress’ Neetam Sachan and SP’s Yogendra Pal Singh), Kidwainagar - Kanpur (Congress sitting MlA Ajay Kapoor and SP’s Om Prakash Mishra), Kanpur Cantonment (Congress Sohil Ansari and SP’s Mohamed Hassan Romi), Maharajpur-Kanpur (Congress Rajarampal and SP’s Smt Aruna Tomar), Jaidpur (R) (Congress Tanuj Puniya and SP’s Ram Gopal Rawat).
Similarly in the fifth phase too candidates of both parties have filed their nominations in Kalpi (Congress-Ms Umakanti Singh and SP’s Rakesh Pal), Sorao-SC (Congress Jawahar lal Diwakar and SP’s Satyaveer Munna) and lastly in Manikpur (Congress Ms Sampat Devi Pal and SP’s Dr Nirbhay Patel).
To sort out the issues and check division of votes due to candidates from both parties, Congress asked three of its candidates to withdraw othe last day of withdrawal for the third phase on Friday.
Besides Naresh Valmiki who withdraw his papers in Mohanlalganj (R) seat in lucknow, former minister Shree Prakash Jaiswal’s brother Pramod Kumar Jaiswal from Aryanagar and Banwarilal Kannujia from Hargaon (R) in Sitapur also withdrew. Interestingly, akin to lucknow’s candidates, Pramod’s name too does not figure in the AICC list.