UP: Congress rewards turncoats with tickets

LUCKNOW: Rebels in rival parties who joined Congress after Priyanka Gandhi’s political plunge were rewarded by means of the grand previous party.

In its second record of 16 candidates released on Wednesday, six turncoats got tickets from their respective turfs, which contains six reserved constituencies. State party president Raj Babbar has zeroed in on Moradabad seat and general candidates announced by means of Congress has touched 27Sitting BJP MP from Bahraich, Savitri Bai Phule, who joined Congress on March 2 has been fielded from her seat.

Phule surrender BJP in April 2018 after accusing the party of weakening the Constitution and disrespecting Dalit icon Ambedkar. Former BSP MP Kaiser Jahan, who received the Sitapur seat in 2009, but misplaced to the Modi wave in 2014, would check out her luck from the seat again.

She joined Congress together with her husband Jasmeer Khan on March five.

Former Samajwadi Party MP from Fatehpur, Rakesh Sachan, has been repeated from his seat. Sachan joined Congress with Phule, but said he prolonged unconditional strengthen to the grand previous party.

Former MP from Bijnor, Omvati Devi, who started her political occupation from Congress in 1986 also returned to the party fold final week. Wife of retired IAS officer RK Singh, Omvati drifted in opposition to SP in the Nineties.

Terming her go back to Congress as a homecoming, Omvati can be contesting from Nagina, the place she started her occupation. “Nagina was an assembly seat then. Post-delimitation in 2008, Nagina was recontoured right into a parliamentary seat,” said a Congress insider.

Manjari, daughter-in-law of former Congress MP and Union minister, Ram Lal Rahi, who returned to Congress in February was given the ticket from Mishrikh. Manjari also has the strengthen of brother-inlaw Suresh, BJP MLA from Hargaon. Sources said, Manjari was fielded instead of her father-in-law as resentment was brewing at the grassroots.

A workforce had also submitted a observation against him to the party brass.

Another former Samjwadi Party MP from Mishrikh, Ramashankar Bhargava was fielded from Mohanlalganj. The record also incorporated UP Congress president Raj Babbar from Moradabad. Babbar’s name was doing rounds from Lucknow, but the plan was scuttled after the SP-BSP combine ditched Congress.

Thereafter, Babbar was most popular from the Fatehpur Sikri seat in Agra.

But, Babbar moved on after BSP got the seat in the seat-sharing system and name of former winner Seema Upadhaya started doing the rounds. Sources said the caste equation went against Babbar on account of the alliance. Eventually, Moradabad, which is relatively a more secure seat, was labored out as in the neighborhood vital Mahaan Dal which entered into an alliance with Congress in February has its presence right here. The seat also has a Priyanka Gandhi connection as it is the home district of her husband Robert Vadra.

Winners of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections have also discovered position in the record.

Veteran leaders Shri Prakash Jaiswal, Jafar Ali Naqvi, Sanjay Sinh and Rajkumari Ratna Singh were repeated from Kanpur, Kheri, Sultanpur and Pratapgarh seats.

Congress has also rewarded loyalists, together with Bhagwati Prasad Chaudhury and Laliteshpati Tripathi by means of fielding them from Robertsganj (SC) and Mirzapur respectively. The party has fielded former IPS officer Kush Saurabh from Bansgaon (SC), Youth Congress leader Pankaj Kumar Sonkar from Lalganj (SC) and district Congress president Parvez Khan from Sant Kabir Nagar.