LUCKNOW The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday changed its candidate for a second time in Meerut, replacing Atul Pradhan with former mayor Sunita Verma who filed her nomination during the day.
April 4 was the last date for filing nomination in Meerut, which will got to poll on April 26 in the second phase of Lok Sabha election.
Pradhan, who had filed his nomination on Wednesday, said he accepted the decision of SP president Akhilesh Yadav, who he met in the morning. In his post on X, Pradhan, SP MLA from Sardhana seat said: “Whatever decision national president Akhilesh Yadav ji has taken, I accept it. Soon I will sit with supporters and discuss.”
Originally, the SP had named advocate Bhanu Pratap Singh as the party’s candidate, but after weeks of speculation, he was replaced by Atul Pradhan.
Confusion also prevailed in Rampur and Moradabad seats, where two candidates filed their nomination claiming themselves to be SP candidate. In Rampur, Asim Raza and Mohibulla Nadvi had filed their nomination. Later, Raza’s nomination was rejected. In Moradabad, sitting MP ST Hasan, who had earlier filed his nomination, was replaced by Ruchi Veera.
In Budaun too, party workers have written to the party president to give a ticket to Aditya Yadav instead of his father Shivpal Yadav, who is party candidate for the seat and the party is likely to change the candidate there.
Originally, the party had named former Badaun MP Dharmendra Yadav for Badaun and then replaced him with Shivpal and made Dharmendra the Azamgarh candidate.
After Meerut’s change on Thursday, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhury, in a post on X, stated: “Only the lucky ones in the opposition get the ticket of a Lok Sabha candidate for a few hours! And lucky are those who are not replaced.”
Sunita Verma and her husband, Yogesh Verma, who were expelled from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2019, joined the Samajwadi Party in 2021. Yogesh Verma was elected MLA for two terms–2007 and 2012–on a BSP ticket but lost in the 2022 assembly elections as an SP candidate. His wife, Sunita, became mayor in 2017.
The BJP is banking on not just Arun Govil’s appeal as an actor who played Ram in popular TV serial ‘Ramayan’, but also that he is a local.
Govil, who joined the BJP in 2021, replaced three-time MP Rajendra Agarwal, who has been holding the Meerut seat since 2004.
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