With candidates for more than half of the total 80 seats of the State has been finalised by the Congress high-command, a good number of sitting Member of Parliaments either not found their names in the contestants list or were afraid of contesting from Uttar Pradesh.
Interestingly, film star Raj Babbar, who made a major setback for the Samajwadi Party, when he defeated chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav in the bi-elections from Ferojabad Parliament constituency, had reportedly appraised the high-command that he will not contest from UP but wanted to shift to Punjab. The Party is reportedly planning to pitch him either from lucknow or from Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida) seat. Similar is the case of another star contestant of Congress, Mohamed Azharudeen, who is former captain of Indian cricket team. He made it clear that instead of contesting from Moradabad Parliament constituency, he would like to shift West Bengal or even to his home state.
Another MP of Congress from Sultanpur Parliament seat, Sanjay Singh, is also not finding going easy for him this time so he first share dais with Bharatiya Janta Party leaders, to sent a message that he would join the saffron brigade and would contest election on BJP ticket and that too against Congress `Yuvraj’ from Amethi. Sources said that Rahul, who is also seeing a potential threat from Aam Adami Party (AAP) candidate Kumar Vishwas, did not want to see any further dent to his vote bank after exit of Sanjay, hence the Sultanpur MP was given an entry into Upper House through Assam.
Seeing `reward’ for sharing dais with BJP had reportedly inspired another Congress MP, Jagdambika Pal, who too feared of repeating it to Parliament on Congress ticket. He openly attacked the High Command and made allegations of getting `step-motherly’ treatment and also went on record to say that if needed, he will also quit the Party. However, Pal, now only found him in catch-22 situation as Congress reportedly hold his ticket while his entry to BJP also get a blockade due to strong opposition from the Sangh parivar.
State Congress president, Nirmal Khatri, too find it difficult to smoothly sail to the Parliament this time. Khatri, reached lucknow to discuss Party programme here at Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee head-quarter on Wednesday afternoon. However, as soon as he learnt of announcement of elections, he left for his Parliament constituency, Faizabad, directing the workers that now they had to run the State organization as he would just concentrate to improve his fortune in order to retain his seat. Sources said that out of the total 43 seats finalized by the High Command, the majority of seats are from Eastern UP. Sources said that in Western UP, the candidates will be finalised once the adjustment of seats for Rastriya lok Dal (RlD) will be completed. Sources also maintained that in the above list, a good number of sitting MPs of the Party did not found place while some new faces which included two film stars Nagma (from Phoolpur Parliament seat) and Ravi Kishen (Jaunpur Parliament seat), are likely to get Congress ticket. Speculations are also high that the Congress would give ticket to actress, Jaya Parda, from Moradabad while Amar Singh, might contest from Noida. It may be mentioned that earlier the Congress claimed that all the sitting MPs will contest elections from the same seat while those who remained runner-up would also get priority during ticket distribution.