Cousins face-off in Saharanpur

In an interesting turn of events, senior Congress leader Rasheed Masood's son Shazan Masood is now the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Saharanpur while his nephew Imran Masood is the Congress nominee from this seat. Ironically, till recently, the situation was just the opposite--Imran had been declared the official SP nominee while Rasheed was lobbying to get the Congress ticket for son Shazan.

Once the Congress refused to oblige, Rasheed (who was earlier with the SP) turned to old friend Mulayam Singh Yadav and got the ticket for his son. Apparently, to spite Mulayam, Congress gave the ticket to Imran. Now, the cousins are locked in a keen electoral contest with each dubbing the other a turncoat. Incidentally, Rasheed is the first MP to be disqualified after being convicted in a corruption case.