Giving a new twist to Samajwadi party feud, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has released parallel list of 235 candidates for Assembly elections.
The CM announced the list of candidates’ just a day after Party Chief and his father Mulyam Singh Yadav releases list of 325 candidates for UP polls.
Read More: UP Polls: CM conveys displeasure to SP supremo over candidates’ list
Prominent among those figuring in the list are ministers Arvind Singh Gope, Pawan Pandey and Ram Govind Chaudhary, who are the hardcore Akhilesh loyalists denied ticket by Mulayam.
Sources said the candidates declared by Akhilesh are likely to contest on different symbols as independent candidates.
“The Chief Minister called us. He instructed us to go to our respective constituencies and prepare for the elections,” Indal Singh, SP MLA from Malihabad, said told TOI after Akhilesh met on Thursday with legislators who were denied tickets.
“We will go to our constituencies, work hard, and again make Akhilesh our CM,” said MLA Pawan Pandey, whose ticket was cut. Pandey, although expelled from SP, continues to be a minister in the Akhilesh government.
“We will contest the upcoming elections, come what may,” said defiant MLA Atul Pradhan.
“The Chief Minister has done a lot for the development of the state and we will contest and win in his name,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the party sources had indicated that Akhilesh was trying to get Mulayam Singh to make changes to the Wednesday list, failing which he would put out a parallel list of candidates.
