With the Samajwadi Party refraining from announcing a candidate from Sarojininagar assembly seat in Lucknow, speculations are rife that its alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal may field a candidate and contest the election from this constituency.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s sitting legislator from Sarojininagar has been vying for a party ticket and ironically competing against her husband and BJP state vice-president Daya Shanker Singh, causing the BJP brass to delay the declaration of the candidate for the seat.
On the other hand, the SP is studying the ongoing fight for ticket in the BJP camp to decide its strategy and has delayed announcement of a candidate from Sarojininagar.
The SP has fielded Anurag Bhadauriya from Lucknow East. He had contested the 2017 assembly election from Sarojininagar but lost by over 34,000 votes.
“Former MLA Sharda Pratap Shukla, who won the seat on a SP ticket in 2012, is also not a choice as he has been rather inert politically. The delay in finalising a candidate for Sarojininagar seat by the party brass has fuelled speculations that the SP could ask the RLD to field its candidate from the seat. Also, the SP leadership does not want any dissent as it could send a wrong signal to the rival camps,” the source said.
“In this scenario, RLD leader Anil Dubey seems to be a good choice in view of the 50,000 Brahmin voters in this constituency. The SP also has a good following and voters in rural parts of this constituency,” the source said.
When contacted, Anil Dubey said that he would contest the election if the party brass directed him but till date he had received no such instructions.