In an attempt to quell rebellion within the party the Samajwadi Party changed its candidate from the Agra (reserve) constituency replacing Sarika Singh Baghel with Maharaj Singh Dhankar. Baghel is sitting Rashtriya lok Dal (RlD) MP of Hatras.Party's general secretary and spokesperson Ram Gopal Yadav said in a statement issued here on Friday that Maharaj Singh Dhankar would now be the official candidate from Agra.
The party along with removing Sarika has also expelled her husband Devendra Singh Baghel from the party for ndiscipline. There were reports that Devendra Singh had beaten up SP (Traffic) in Agra few days back. The local unit had claimed that this incident had brought bad name to the party and there was a section of leaders who wanted change in the party’s candidate in Agra.
Sarika and her husband had joined the SP even though she was a sitting MP of RlD from Hathras seat.
The party has also announced Manisha Deepak as party's candidate for the Unnao assembly by-polls to be held along with the lok Sabha elections. The Unnao assembly seat fell vacant following the death of Deepak Kumar, husband of the SP candidate.
Meanwhile, party also announced 13 lok Sabha candidates in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka states. While 4 candidates were announced for Madhya Pradesh, 3 for West Bengal and 6 for Karnataka, Yadav said.
The list for MP includes: Dr Ambriswh Kumari (Tikargarh- R), Kankar Munjere (Balaghat), Rajendra Singh Yadav ( Guna) and Subhash Shukla (Chindwara).
For West Bengal party has fielded Milan Das from North Malda, Sudeep Ranjan Sen (Raiganj), and Prashant Roy (Birbhum).
In Karnataka D N Ninjappa is candidate from Chitradurga (R), Pratap Rao Patil from Chitkauri, K M Rangnath Reddy from Koppal, Dr V Muniswami Chikballapur from Kolar(R), and Ravi Kumar T Yadav from Bangalore South.