As Congress skips UP bypolls, one leader won’t let his year-long efforts go to waste, stays put in race

Defending his determination contempt the elder leadership’s directives, Yadav asked, “Why should the enactment wholly surrender to different enactment and refrain from participating successful elections?” Asked if immoderate elder person had encouraged him to participate the contest, Yadav refused to comment.

A erstwhile wide caput of the Allahabad University students’ union, Yadav is simply a longtime Congress idiosyncratic and is known arsenic a grassroots person with sizeable backing from the mediate class. For the past 3 years, helium has served arsenic the president of the Congress’s Prayagraj (Gangapaar) portion and is besides said to person connections with the Congress’s cardinal leadership.

On learning of Yadav’s determination to record his nomination, authorities Congress president Ajay Rai removed him from the enactment station for going against the party’s decision. The UP Congress disciplinary committee besides issued a show-cause announcement to Yadav, saying his enactment amounted to indiscipline and directed him to respond wrong 24 hours. Yadav’s determination to contention could extremity up hurting the SP’s chances successful the predetermination arsenic it could disagreement the important chunk of Muslim and OBC votes successful the constituency. Of Phulpur’s 4.16 lakh voters, 90,000 are from Dalit groups, 70,000 are from the OBC Yadav community, 55,000 are Muslims, and 40,000 are Brahmins.

A section Congress person said Yadav had been preparing for the Assembly predetermination for a agelong clip and had expressed his tendency to contention the predetermination to the authorities enactment of the party. Prayagraj Congress spokesperson Haseeb Ahmed said this showed determination was an urgent request to physique coordination betwixt disgruntled enactment workers and elder leaders successful the state.

The SP has fielded Mujtaba Siddiqui who has antecedently won 3 Assembly elections connected a summons of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), from Soraon successful 2002 and 2007, and from Pratappur successful 2012. He joined the SP 2 years ago, losing that year’s Assembly elections from Phulpur to the BJP’s Praveen Patel. The BJP leader’s predetermination to the Lok Sabha from Phulpur has necessitated this bypoll.

SP’s media in-charge successful Prayagraj Dan Bahadur Madhur said Yadav’s candidacy would not marque a quality arsenic “there is nary Congress ballot bank” successful Phulpur. In 2022, Congress campaigner Siddhanath Maurya polled lone 1,626 votes, helium said, adding that the SP was not focusing connected the Congress rebel since the enactment had already taken enactment against him. “My campaigner volition expanse the predetermination due to the fact that each the calculations are successful his favour,” Madhur said.

The BJP has nominated erstwhile MLA Deepak Patel who had won the 2012 authorities elections connected a BSP summons from Karachhana successful Prayagraj district. Patel joined the BJP successful 2018 and the pursuing twelvemonth his parent Kesari Devi Patel won the Lok Sabha predetermination from Phulpur. BJP metropolis president Rajendra Mishra said Patel would triumph the predetermination by importantly expanding its 2022 borderline of 2,732 votes. Among the 19 candidates successful Phulpur is BSP’s Jitendra Singh, a businessman who is contesting his archetypal election.