Ignoring protest by senior party leaders, the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday declared Amar Singh as the party candidate for the Rajya Sabha. Amar Singh was expelled from the party in January 2010 along with Jayaprada, the then lok Sabha MP from Rampur for anti-party activities.
The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday announced the list of seven candidates for the Rajya Sabha and 8 candidates for the legislative Council elections.
The Rajya Sabha candidates include former Union minister Beni Prasad Verma, who has recently joined the SP, two-term former MP from Allahabad Reoti Raman Singh, two sitting Rajya Sabha members Arvind Pratap Singh and Vishambhar Prasad Nishad. Former chairman of the UP legislative Council Sukhram Singh Yadav has also found a berth in the Rajya Sabha.
The most notable name on the list of Rajya Sabha candidate is a controversial real estate developer Sanjay Seth. The Samajwadi Party in
May 2015 had sent his name to the Governor for his nomination as member of the legislative Council. The Governor, citing his shady profile, had refused to nominate him to the legislative Council. The Income Tax department had raided the office of his real estate company in lucknow
in 2014. In the 100-member legislative Council, nine members are nominated by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister.
The SP announced the list of eight candidates for the legislative Council. Yashwant Singh, Bukkhal Nawab, Ramsunder Das Nishad, Balram Yadav - all have been repeated by the party and their term is ending on July 6. Balram Yadav, a native of Azamgarh, is the Cabinet Minister for Secondary Education. The other candidates are Jagjivan Prasad, who is an OSD
to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, and Shatrudh Prakash, former minister from Varanasi. The other two are Kamlesh Pathak of Auraiyya and Ranvijay Singh of Gonda.
The SP had sent the names of Kamlesh Pathak and Ranvijay Singh for their nomination to the legislative Council. Governor Ram Naik had rejected both the names along with that of Sanjay Seth. Failing to get them nominated, the Samajwadi Party has decided to send them to the upper house of the state legislature through the route of election where the Governor has no role to play.
Announcing the list of candidates, state incharge of the Samajwadi Party and PWD Minister Shivpal Yadav said: "All candidates are members of the party and Amar Singh lives in the heart of Mulayam Singh Yadav and there is no place bigger then that." He said the names of candidates were approved by the party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who was unanimously
authorised by the parliamentary board of the party to finalise the list of candidates. The meeting of the parliamentary board of the SP was held here on Tuesday.
Denying any discord and differences within the party or the parliamentary board, Shivpal Yadav said: "The list of candidates was read out during
the meeting of the parliamentary board and it was the unanimous decision of the party."
Defending the candidature of Sanjay Seth, the senior SP leader said: "The Samajwadi Party is a big party and there is space for people from all
sections of the society."
Earlier in the day, during the meeting of the parliamentary board, Ram Gopal Yadav and Minority Affairs Minister Azam Khan vehemently opposed the name of Amar Singh.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Beni Prasad Verma, who were also present in the meeting, remained silent on the issue of Amar Singh. The
other members of the parliamentary board are Rajya Sabha MP Kiranmoy Nanda and PWD Minister Shivpal Yadav. A visibly upset Ram Gopal Yadav later left for Delhi soon after the meeting.
Nearly for the last two years, Amar Singh is regularly meeting party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and was present at almost all important occasions and his entry into the SP was believed to be a fait accompli. Amar Singh was the only leader other than those of the Samajwadi Party who had attended the birthday bash organised in honour of Mulayam Singh at Saifai on November 21 last year. In April, Amar Singh
had organised a grand reception party in Delhi for Aditya Yadav, son of Shivpal Yadav, who got married in March.