Rebels challenging official party nominees on many seats in Uttar Pradesh might queer the pitch for the Samajwadi Party.
Rebels challenging official party nominees on many seats in Uttar Pradesh might queer the pitch for the Samajwadi Party.
Bitter family feud in the Yadav family which created bad blood among workers at grassroot level also left them confused as to whom to back.
Many leaders close to Shivpal Yadav camp were denied tickets and new faces were accommodated triggering resentment that is palpable even now with almost half of the elections through.
This led to the rise of rebels who are making it difficult for the party candidates given tickets as official nominees.
Besides, the last minute alliance between SP and Congress, when filing of nominations were on, added to the confusion among the minds of ticket seekers and those very keen on contesting were left high and dry.
SP gave away 105 of the 403 Assembly seats to Congress, keeping the rest to itself under the eleventh hour pact, but many of its ticket seekers are still in the fray as rebels in these seats they had been nurturing all these years.
While ministers in Akhilesh Yadav cabinet Ambika Chowhdury, Narad Rai and Vijay Mishra have joined Bahujan Samaj Party, another minister Sharda Pratap Shukla joined RLD in a huff.
Ambika and Rai have been given BSP ticket from Fefna (Ballia) and Ballia Sadar respectively. Mishra, a sitting MLA from Ghazipur, is not contesting but supporting the BSP candidate there.
Another minister Shadab Fatima was also denied SP ticket from Zahurabad (Ghazipur). The ruling party fielded Mahendra in her place.
Though she is not contesting polls but her silence might affect winning prospects of the new SP candidate.
The situation is the same in a number of other constituencies where sitting MLAs, denied tickets, are either contesting as rebels or working half-heartedly for the official candidates.
However, discounting reports of SP facing trouble because of rebels, SP spokesman Rajendra Choudhary said, "The situation is no better in opposition camps, they too are facing the same predicament. It has become a level playing field, so to say." (MORE)
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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