HOURS AFTER the Congress and Samajwadi Party announced the seat-sharing arrangement for the elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress released its first list of 43 candidates for the first and second phases of polls. With Sheila Dikshit stepping aside as the party’s chief ministerial face, the party, in a surprise move, fielded former union minister Jitin Prasada, another prominent Brahmin face. The party fielded all its sitting MLAs as it got back the seats from the Samajwadi Party as part of the seat-sharing deal.
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The SP had sprung a surprise on Friday by announcing candidates in seats held by the Congress, including that of Mathura, which is represented by its legislature party leader Pradeep Mathur. The other seats included Shamli, Bilaspur, Hapur, Khurja, Deoband and Syana.
The Congress got back all the seats on Sunday and renominated all its sitting MLAs, barring Mavia Ali in Deoband as Ali had figured in the SP list.
Interestingly, in some seats, the Congress fielded former SP leaders, triggering speculation that they were candidates “on loan” from the SP. For instance, the Congress has fielded Kuldip Ujjwal from Bhagpat.
Besides Prasada, who will contest from Tilhar, the Congress fielded former Hapur MP Surender Goel from Muradnagar.
It fielded Imran Masood from Nakur. Masood, a prominent Muslim face of the Congress in UP, had courted controversy in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 when he allegedly threatened to “chop” BJP’s then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi “into pieces”.
The Congress repeated its sitting MLAs Pankaj Malik from Shamli, Sanjay Kapoor from Bilaspur, Gajraj Singh from Hapur reserved seat, Bansi Singh Pahadia from Khurja (SC) and Pradeep Mathur from Mathura.