Home » News » UP MLAs aspire to graduate into national politics
Aspiring to graduate in the national politics, as many as 30 members of the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly would be trying their luck in the Lok Sabha elections from the state, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
The Samajwadi Party, which has 96 MLAs in the state assembly in the fray has maximum number of 17 MLAs including party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav from different parliamentary constituencies followed by Bahujan Samaj Party and Bharatiya Janata Party which have fielded seven and five MLAs respectively.
Interestingly, cutting across the party lines, leaders see no harm in pitching their sitting MLAs in the Lok Sabha elections.
"As compared to any other candidate, a sitting MLA enjoys support of the electorate and has a better winning prospects, which matters most for a political party. This election is crucial for our party as we have to stop communal forces from catapulting themselves to power," SP leader Akhilesh Yadav said justifying the decision to field MLAs. While the party chief, who is also leader of the opposition in the Assembly is contesting Lok Sabha elections from Mainpuri seat, former speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, an MLA from Etwa (Siddharth Nagar), has been given a party ticket from Dumariyaganj seat.
Yadav had won the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Etawah but later resigned and opted to sit in the Assembly while Pandey is making his debut in Parliamentary elections. Similarly former minister in BJP regime and an MLA from Kolosala seat Ajay Rai is contesting from Varanasi seat as SP nominee against BJP heavyweight Murali Manohar Joshi. Rai after being denied ticket from BJP, joined SP fold recently.
Other MLAs whom the SP has given tickets include Iqbal Mahmood from Sambhal, Mehboob Ali from Amroha, Shahid Manzoor from Meerut, Bhagwat Charan Gangwar from Bareilly, Dharmendra Kashyap from Anola, Riyaz Ahmad from Pilibhit, Mithilesh Kumar from Shahjahanpur, Deepak Kumar from Unnao, Ashok Singh Chandel from Hamirpur, Shabbir Ahmad from Bahraich, Raj Kishore Singh from Basti, Brahma Shanker Tripathi from Kushinagar, Durga Prasad Yadav from Azamgargh and Ram Kishan Yadav from Chandauli.
Of the seven MLAs fielded by the BSP,