Uttar Pradesh polls: Mulayam Singh Yadav bahu gets seat, to fight Rita

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav averted another crisis in the family on Monday when he finally announced a ticket for Aparna Yadav, younger daughter-in-law of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

There had been speculations about Aparna Yadav’s ticket since the seat from which she had earlier been declared candidate (Lucknow Cantt) was a sitting seat of the Congress, held earlier by Rita Bahuguna Joshi till she joined the BJP.
She will cross swords with 67-year-old Rita, former state Congress chief who had won the seat in the 2012 Assembly polls.

The SP president had not uttered a word on Ms Aparna’s seat and sources said that he would not pressurise the Congress to give up its claim on the seat.
However, it is learnt that on Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s insistence, the SP leadership managed to convince the Congress to leave the Lucknow Cantonment seat for Ms Aparna.

Ms Aparna’s candidature on the Lucknow Cantonment seat was announced by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav in March last year and she has been constantly working in the constituency. At a function in Lucknow, two days ago, Ms Aparna had said, “I am 100 per cent sure I will get a ticket from this seat and I will fight hard here and ensure victory for myself and the party.”

Significantly, she will now face Dr Joshi on this seat since the latter has been named as candidate by the BJP. The Lucknow Cantonment seat has a sizeable population of people from Uttarakhand and both, Ms Aparna and Dr Joshi, belong to the Uttarakhand region. Meanwhile, the SP on Monday released its fourth list of 37 candidates.

The tickets to two ministers, Vijay Misra and Shadab Fatima, have been denied.
State SP chief Naresh Uttam clarified that the candidate from Mubarakpur is chief Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s namesake. Earlier, there was speculation that the CM would be contesting the Mubarakpur seat.