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,

four MLAs have joined the party recently after resigning from the state assembly as well as their parent parties.While Qadir Rana, who became MLA on Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket in 2007 assembly polls, had been named as BSP candidate from Muzaffarnagar parliamentary constituency, MLA Shyam Sunder Sharma elected on Loktantrik Congress Party  platform has been given ticket from Mathura seat by BSP. Sharma, the lone MLA of the party had merged his party with the BSP earlier.
 
Similarly, controversial MLA DP Yadav too had merged his party Rashtriya Parivartan Dal with the BSP and was given a  ticket from Badaun seat.
 
Another SP MLA Gauri Shankar is in the fray from Etawah, while an independent from Mau, Mukhtar Ansari is
contesting from Varanasi seat as a BSP nominee. The BSP has fielded lone Janta Dal-U MLA from Rari, Dhananjay Singh from Jaunpur and recently resigned BJP MLA Rajiv Trehan alias Rajiv Chanana from Moradabad.
 
"We have to make Mayawati as next the Prime Minister of the country and those having winning prospect have been given party ticket. To prevent parties like Congress and BJP from coming to power at the centre we have selected strong candidates", a BSP leader said.  

The BJP is not far behind in fielding MLAs and has given ticket to five of them including senior party leader Lalji Tondon from Lucknow. Another MLA Lallu Singh will be making a debut in Loksabha polls from Faizabad while Ram Naresh Rawat will be contesting fom Barabanki and Krishna Raj from Shahjahanpur. Senior party leader and a former minister Hukum Singh is also in the fray contesting election from Kairana seat.
 
"We dont have shortage of candidates but we have fielded influential MLAs as we have a target of making LK Advani as next Prime Minister and to defeat those parties which believe in Mulsim appeasement", BJP Vice President Hriday Narain Dixit said justifying party's decision.
 
The Congress has so far fielded its sitting MLA Pradeep Jain Aditya from Jhansi seat. "There is no harm in an MLA contesting the Lok Sabha elections. It is upto the people to decide whether they want their MLA to represent them in the Parliament or not," state Congress general secretary Subodh Srivastava said.