Samajwadi Party is set to announce the first list of candidates for the 2017 Assembly polls, in April. The first list is likely to include only 100 candidates while the remaining will be announced in the next two months.
To fight anti-incumbency , SP leaders are likely to take harsh measures and deny tickets to as many as 80-100 sitting MlAs. This may include some present and former ministers.
By August last year, the SP had already done the spadework for 169 Assembly seats it had lost in 2012. A committee headed by general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav was set up to screen candidates for these seats. The other members were labour minister Shahid Manzoor, leaders Naresh Uttam and SRS Yadav and minister’s Kamal Akhtar and Arvind Singh Gope.
Over 1,500 applications were received for 169 seats from Kanpur, Jhansi, Azamgarh, Basti, Gorakhpur and lucknow, Meerut, Saharanpur, Moradabad and Bareilly divisions. Barring a few seats, the panel finalised most seats.
Samajwadi Party sources said that the Panchyat elections and MlC polls delayed the process of announcement. The conduct of MlAs during both elections helped the party in fiinalising the candidates for each Assembly segment.
The MlAs who rebelled against the official candidates in these elections are likely to face the heat. They will need a lot of explaining to do to win the confidence of the leaders.
Sources said that the SP is in no hurry to initiate the selection of candidates for the seats won by it in 2012 Assembly polls. For the sitting seats, the selection of candidates will be taken up six months before the next Assembly polls as the leadership is aware of many sitting MlAs and ministers being in touch with rivals like the BJP and the BSP for safe seats. ‘Hence the party will prefer to start the process of choosing candidates six months prior to the next Assembly polls,” said the sources. In 2012 the SP had won 224 seats and later added seven more seats by winn8ing by elections taking the tally to 231.