The nomination of Asim Raja, who filed nomination on Wednesday from Rampur Lok Sabha seat as Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate, was rejected on Thursday. Raja, who is considered close to jailed SP leader Azam Khan, was replaced by Muhibullah Nadvi from Rampur constituency. Nadvi is the imam of Parliament Street Jama Masjid in Delhi. Confusion prevailed for several hours after two candidates in the Rampur parliamentary constituency claimed to be the Samajwadi Party's official nominees. A similar scenario occurred in Moradabad where two SP candidates were adamant about contesting from the seat.
Nadvi told reporters after filing the nomination, "SP president Akhilesh Yadav ji has sent me. Azam Khan is also my sympathiser and I pray for him. I have filed my nomination from the Samajwadi Party and I have also got the cycle symbol."
Suspense over Rampur, Moradabad seats ends
However, the party now cleared the confusion declaring that Muhibullah Nadvi from Rampur and Ruchi Veera from Moradabad Lok Sabha seat are its authorised candidates.
Two candidates each from Rampur and Moradabad seats filed nomination as the SP candidates. This led to a situation of confusion throughout the day over the authorised candidates of the SP on both seats.
In Rampur, Asim Raja, who had previously contested the Lok Sabha byelection, filed his nomination calling himself an SP candidate. At the same time, Nadvi also filed his nomination making the same claim.
On the other side, confusion arose in Moradabad after party leader Veera filed nomination on Wednesday as the SP candidate. Earlier on Tuesday, sitting SP MP from Moradabad S T Hasan had also filed the nomination as the party candidate.
However, the party leadership clarified the situation in the evening.
Party's national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said the sitting MP from Moradabad, Hasan's ticket has been cancelled. In his place, former Bijnor MLA Veera has been made the party candidate.
Apart from this, Nadvi is the party's authorised candidate from Rampur.
Earlier, Raja, a close confidante of Azam Khan, told reporters, "We have filed our nomination as a Samajwadi Party candidate. Who will contest the elections will be decided on March 30 (the date of withdrawal of nominations)."
On the question that along with him, Nadvi has also filed nomination as the SP candidate from Rampur, Raja said, "I am saying that 20 people should file the nomination...What will happen with that? Everything will be finalised on the 30th March."
Voting on these seats will be held in the first phase on April 19.
Akhilesh Yadav had met Azam Khan in the Sitapur jail late last week. The SP's Rampur district president had, on the previous day, said in a statement that they wanted Akhilesh Yadav to contest from the constituency. Rampur was a bastion of 75-year-old Azam Khan for the past over four decades.
He had been elected MLA from here 10 times and had represented the seat in Parliament once.
(With PTI inputs)
