LUCKNOW: The rumblings within the Samajwadi Party (SP) camp over ticket distribution came to the fore when two candidates of the party filed papers each for Moradabad and Rampur Lok Sabha seats on the last day of nomination on Wednesday.Uncertainty loomed large as one candidate from each of the seats will have to withdraw by Saturday, March 30, paving the way for the other to contest as the party’s official candidate for both seats.While in Moradabad, the sitting SP MP ST Hasan filed his papers on Tuesday, BSP turncoat Ruchi Veera reached the brass city on Wednesday to file her nomination papers claiming that she had the official symbol of the party.Similarly, in Rampur, while Asim Raja, a close aide of SP stalwart Azam Khan, filed his nomination, the other candidate Maulana Mohibullah Nadwi, Imam of Jama Masjid at Parliament Street in New Delhi, also filed his papers as the official SP candidate. Nadwi hails from Rampur but based in Delhi for the last 15-odd years.According to insiders from the Samajwadi Party, one candidate in each of the two constituencies – Ruchi Veera in Moradabad and Asim Raja in Rampur – are aligned with Azam Khan, while the other two candidates – ST Hasan in Moradabad and Maulana Mohibullah Nadwi in Rampur – are favored by SP chief Akhilesh YadavThe genesis of the confusion lies in the meeting of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan in Sitapur jail recently. Akhilesh had visited Azam to consult him over the candidates for Moradabad and Rampur. The sources claimed that Azam Khan was miffed with the candidature of ST Hasan from Moradabad, and he proposed the name of Ruchi Veera for the seat. As for Rampur, Azam wanted either Akhilesh to contest from his (Azam’s) bastion or any member of the Yadav familyMeanwhile, irrespective of whatever transpired between the two leaders, Akhilesh declared Maulana Mohibullah Nadwi as the official candidate of SP rejecting Azam Khan’s demand. Consequently, the Rampur unit of SP rebelled against the official candidate of the party.Akhilesh rushed SP UP chief Naresh Uttam with the party symbol by chartered plane to be provided to Maulana for filing the papers on Wednesday.”In the meantime, Azam’s aide Asim Raja also filed his papers, claiming that he had been asked by Azam to do so. Asim Raja had earlier contested the 2022 assembly by-election for the Rampur Sadar seat and then the Rampur Lok Sabha seat by-election the same year after the two seats were vacated by Azam Khan. He lost both elections.However, as per the political experts, the chaos in the SP camp over naming of party candidates for Moradabad and Rampur seats will hit the party’s performance and its prospects on the two seats. Azam Khan’s proposal for Akhilesh or anyone from the Yadav clan to contest from Rampur also came as a surprise for the party leadership.Azam himself has served as a 10-time MLA from Rampur Sadar and was elected MP in 2019. According to party insiders, Akhilesh had initially agreed to nominate his nephew Taj Pratap Yadav for the Rampur seat. However, the announcement made during a press conference by Asim Raja and SP’s Rampur district unit chief Ajay Sagar, declaring their intention to boycott elections unless Akhilesh himself contested from the seat, acted as a spoiler. This pressured the party chief to nominate Maulana Mohibullah instead. For the SP leadership, the press conference signified nothing short of a revolt led by Azam Khan and his supporters Similarly, the demand by the jailed SP leader to change the Moradabad candidate from ST Hasan to Ruchi Veera baffled the party’s leadership. This was possibly because in the recent past ST Hasan had fallen out of favor with Azam Khan, who had backed him for years. However, the SP sources claimed that Akhilesh Yadav asked Shivpal to meet Azam and pacify him in Sitapur jail.
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