Shivpal, or son? SP musical chairs now plays out in Badaun Lok Sabha seat

“Wherever I have held meetings in Badaun, the people have demanded a young candidate,” he said.

Aditya, who has been campaigning for Shivpal, told PTI that the people wanted him to contest. “It has come from the public that when Dharmendra Yadav (another of Akhilesh’s cousins) began his politics, he took the reins of Badaun and the public ensured his victory as a youngster. I think they feel the same way now.” Incidentally, the SP had first declared Dharmendra as its candidate from Badaun.

At the same time Aditya added that “officially, we are all campaigning for Shivpal Yadav, because he is the official candidate of the party and he will contest the election”.

Asked about the matter by reporters Wednesday, Shivpal said: “Anyone can make a demand. A list is released by the national leadership… as part of a high-level strategy. It cannot be revealed to you.” He added: “Hum ladenge bhi, ladayenge bhi (We will fight and will help others fight).”

The Badaun story has played out earlier in other Lok Sabha constituencies for which the SP has announced names.

In Moradabad, two candidates claimed to have got the SP ticket, before the candidature of Ruchi Veera was ultimately considered to be final, over that of sitting party MP S T Hasan, on March 27, the last date to file nominations. The matter didn’t end there, though, with a letter purportedly written by Akhilesh surfacing, asking the Election Commission to re-consider Hasan as the SP candidate.

SP sources claimed that this particular letter could not reach the returning officer in time, and hence Veera ended up becoming the official candidate. In an interview to The Indian Express, Hasan had claimed sabotage behind his nomination papers being mislaid, suggesting the hand of SP veteran Azam Khan in it. Veera is seen as close to Azam Khan.

Hassan repeated his allegations later, while speaking to mediapersons, saying: “Akhileshji wanted me to contest… and sent the letter accordingly to cancel the other nomination. But the deadline was over by the time the letter came… Some conspiracy happened.”

The consequence is that, on the ground, SP workers remain confused about whether Veera has Akhilesh’s blessings or not.

Hasan had won the Moradabad Lok Sabha seat in 2019 by a huge margin of over 1 lakh votes, defeating Sarvesh Kumar Singh of the BJP. Veera is a former Bijnore MLA of the SP.

While the SP fought in 2019 in alliance with the BSP, the two parties are contesting separately this time. Veera’s job is made tougher by the fact that the BSP has fielded a Muslim candidate, Mohd Irfan Saifi, which might take away the SP’s Muslim votes. The BJP has repeated Sarvesh from Moradabad.

Similarly, in Rampur, Azam Khan’s turf, till the last minute, two candidates claimed to be fighting on the SP ticket. Finally, surprise candidate Mohibullah Nadvi, a cleric of a mosque located on Parliament Street in Delhi, was accepted as the SP candidate, while papers of Azam Khan’s aide Asim Raja got rejected.

Rampur had been won in 2019 by Azam Khan, but he gave up the seat after winning the state Assembly elections in 2022. In the consequent bypoll, marked by allegations of widespread voter intimidation, the BJP had won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat.

In Gautam Budh Nagar seat, the SP first named Dr Mahendra Nagar as its candidate, later replaced him with Rahul Awana, and then brought back Nagar again.

In 2019, Gautam Buddh Nagar had been won by the BJP’s Dr Mahesh Sharma, who had defeated the BSP’s Satveer Nagar by a huge margin of about 4 lakh votes.

In Bijnor, the SP replaced its original choice, Yashvir Singh, with Deepak Saini. In 2019, Malook Nagar of the BSP had defeated Kunwar Bharatendra Singh of the BJP by about 70,000 votes from here.

In Meerut, the SP replaced Bhanu Pratap Singh with Atul Pradhan. In 2019, the seat had been won by Rajendra Agarwal of the BJP, a two-term sitting MP then. Agarwal had defeated Haji Yaqub Qureshi of the BSP in a close fight by a margin of about 5,000 votes.

The BJP has fielded actor Arun Govil from the seat this time. Pradhan, the sitting SP MLA from Sardhana, is considered a strong choice as he had defeated BJP firebrand leader Sangeet Som in the 2022 Assembly elections by about 18,000 votes.

With PTI inputs