AMN / Lucknow
Samajwadi Party on Monday replaced its candidate from Varanasi constituency. The party formally fielded former BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav as the alliance candidate from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency to take on senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tej Bahadur announced after filing his nomination form today that he would contest on the SP symbol, and soon after the party too confirmed that it had replaced Shalini Yadav as its candidate from the high-profile seat.
Tej Bahadur Yadav had, a few weeks ago, said he wanted to take on PM Modi in Varanasi. The alliance of the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had earlier named Shalini Yadav, the daughter-in-law of a former Congress lawmaker, as the grand alliance candidate from Varanasi.
The BSF constable came into limelight when in 2017 he posted a video on social media complaining about the food served to the troops. He was later dismissed from service and had already said that he would contest from Varanasi as an independent candidate.
Both candidates filed their nomination papers today and party sources told that later Shalini will withdraw her candidature. Today is the last date of filing nomination for the seat which will go to poll on 19th May in the seventh phase.