Two sitting MLAs dropped in Etawah

KANPUR: Samajwadi Party declared its list of 191 candidates for the Assembly elections on Friday, dropping two sitting MLAs from Etawah.
It is the first list after a bitter infighting between Akhilesh and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav over party symbol `cycle'.
Names of two sitting MLAs - Sukhdevi Verma from Bharthana (reserved) and Raghuraj Singh Shakya from Etawah (Sadar), considered as loyalists of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shivpal Singh Yadav, are missing from the list.
Shivpal Yadav is the surprise inclusion in the list. Shivpal has been fielded from Jaswantnagar constituency.
On Thursday, Shivpal Yadav had said in Saifai that he will contest elections from his traditional Jaswantnagar seat.
Verma has been dropped in favour of Kamlesh Katheria, son of a former SP MP Premdas Katheria, who had unsuccessfully contested Etawah Lok Sabha seat in 2014 Modi wave. Katheria was defeated by BJP’s Ashok Kumar Doharey by a margin of over 2 lakh votes.
Raghuraj Singh Shakya has been replaced by nagar palika parishad chairman Kuldeep Gupta Santu, considered to be the close confidante of Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav.
According to party sources, Sukhdevi Verma was set aside because of age factor. Raghuraj Shakya’s survey reports are poor. Sources said that he has been punished for switiching over his loyalities to chief minister’s uncle Shivpal Yadav in the recently ended family feud. Shakya, who resides in Dhaulpur Kheda area of Jaswantnagar, has a strong hold on dalit and backward voters.
Sukhdevi Verma, who has also has a strong hold on dalit voters in the region, is wife of late Gaya Prasad Verma, who was very close to SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and inducted in the state cabinet after 1989 Assembly elections.
District SP chief Gopal Yadav said, “Now the list has been released. We have started campaigning for our candidates. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has given tickets to those who have worked hard.”