AMN
The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Samajwadi Party have joined hands to defeat BJP in the upcoming by polls to two seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The RLD said that the Samajwadi party candidate Tabassum Hasan will contest the Kairana Lok Sabha seat on the RLD symbol. She is the former MP and mother of the Kairana SP MLA Nahid Hasan. The SP has decided to field Naimul Hasan as its candidate from Noorpur assembly seat in Bijnor district.
Kairana LS constituency has 16 lakh voters, of which Muslims constitute a major portion of 5 lakh voters. The 48-year-old was herself elected to the 15 Lok Sabha from Kairana in 2009 on a BSP ticket. Another major chunk is of Gurjars that constitute 1 lakh voters
Both SP and RLD are waiting for the green signal from the BSP president Mayawati. RLD vice-president Jayant Chaudhary held close to a three-hour long meeting with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Friday. Later he met the BSP supremo Mayawati in Delhi. An understanding was reached that both the parties would jointly contest the May 28 by-elections to Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur Assembly seats, RLD spokesperson Anil Dubey said here on Saturday.
“This has been decided that the RLD would be with the opposition in the upcoming by polls and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. A broad understanding has also emerged that the coming 2019 Lok Sabha elections should be contested together by all Opposition parties’’, said the RLD spokesman.
The Samajwadi Party had caused a major upset in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha by-elections recently, wresting both the prestigious seats from the BJP. The Gorakhpur seat was vacated by Yogi Adityanath and Phulpur seat by the Keshav Prasad Maurya after becoming the state chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively. The Bahujan Samaj Party had extended its support to the SP candidates on both the seats.
Though BSP has already declared that it would not take active part in any by-election, Mayawati will be consulted on the matter, as all the parties want to keep things clear among themselves in order to ensure the longevity of the alliance.
The Kairana and Noorpur seats fell vacant following the deaths of BJP lawmakers Hukum Singh and Lokendra Singh. Hukum had won the Kairana Lok Sabha poll in 2014 by getting 5.65 lakh votes. His closest rival, SP’s Nahid Hassan, managed 3.30 lakh votes. In the 2017 state Assembly elections, BJP’s Lokendra won the Noorpur constituency. He got 79,000 votes, while SP candidate Naim-ul-Hassan managed 66,436 votes. Kairana Lok Sabha seat has around 17 lakh voters.