VARANASI / LUCKNOW: Curtains came down on the suspense over Samajwadi Party’s pick for Lok Sabha bypoll on Monday with former Badaun MP Dharmendra Yadav filing his nomination from Azamgarh – putting to rest speculations over former Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav contesting from the seat. The surprise, however, came from Rampur where party veteran Azam Khan picked his close aide Asim Raza Khan as the SP candidate.
Talking to reporters at the Azamgarh collectorate, three-time MP Dharmendra Yadav, who is also the cousin of former CM Akhilesh Yadav, said the people of Azamgarh have ensured victory of all 10 SP candidates in the 2022 assembly polls and the same voters will ensure his victory as well.
BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua also filed his nomination for the Azamgarh Lok Sabha bypoll on Monday. Talking to the media after filing his papers, the Bhojpuri film star exuded confidence that people will vote on development issues which will ensure his victory.
The bypoll was necessitated after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav vacated the seat following his win in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Reports said that the SP was keen to field Bamcef co-founder Balihari Babu’s son Sushil Anand as the candidate from Azamgarh, but a technical flaw was a hitch that pressed alarm bells. Sushil Anand is learnt to have himself apprised the leadership that his name erroneously figured from two different locations in the voters’ list – one of his present address in Azamgarh city and the other of his native village in the district. Fearing that this may cause cancellation of his candidature on technical grounds, the SP decided to opt for Dharmendra Yadav.
As for SP’s Rampur pick Asim, his candidature came much in contrast with reports that the party veteran may field either his wife former MP Tazeen Fatma or daughter-in-law Sidra Khan as party candidate from Rampur. It may be mentioned here that the party leadership is believed to have communicated to Azam that the party will go by his choice of candidate from his home turf.
Asim Raza Khan is not only known to be a close confidant of Azam but is also known to the SP leadership in Lucknow as well. He is the district president of SP and had handled Azam Khan’s nomination and election campaign in the 2022 assembly polls which the latter contested from jail. Asim’s candidature has made Rampur polls more interesting as the ruling BJP has fielded Ghanshyam Lodhi as its candidate.
Ghanshyam is not only a former SP MLC but one of the key OBC leaders of Rampur who has been close to Azam Khan for a better part of his political career. In a way, in Rampur, the contest will be between two people who have been closely associated with Azam.
