In a dramatic turn of events, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday at the last minute changed its candidate from the Moradabad constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and picked Ruchi Vira over senior leader ST Hasan. According to reports, senior SP leader Azam Khan is said to be behind the change of candidate as he is supposedly angry with sitting MP Hasan.
ST Hasan's name announced on March 24
According to reports, the entire episode from Sitapur jail when Akhilesh Yadav had reached on March 22 to meet party leader Azam Khan. During that meeting itself, senior SP leader Azam Khan had put two conditions before Akhilesh Yadav, one of which was to declare Ruchi Veera as the candidate from Moradabad seat. The second condition Azam Khan put to Akhilesh Yadav was to contest the elections from Rampur Lok Sabha seat. Despite this, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav announced the name of ST Hasan from Moradabad seat on March 24.
Did Azam Khan write the script from jail?
After declaring Moradabad MP ST Hasan as the candidate, it is believed that Azam Khan played the game while in jail. On the other hand, due to the candidate not being declared from Rampur seat, the SP district unit held a meeting on Tuesday. In the meeting, it was announced to boycott the elections if Akhilesh Yadav does not contest from Rampur seat. On Tuesday, while the political temperature was rising in Rampur, Azam Khan's close friend Ruchi Veera reached Lucknow. After meeting Akhilesh, Ruchi Veera left for Moradabad with her symbol, because the next day i.e. Wednesday was the last day of nomination.
ST Hasan had also filed his nomination
Samajwadi Party's already declared candidate ST Hasan had filed his nomination on Tuesday itself, but by evening, crisis started looming over his ticket. Considering a potential revolt from Azam Khan's camp, his close aide and former MLA Ruchi Veera was declared as the official candidate of Samajwadi Party.
What did SP MP ST Hasan say about the whole incident?
After being denied ticket, an upset SP MP ST Hasan said that 'the decision doesn't affect him'. He said, "The ideology that is ours was the ideology of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav. It was Akhilesh who sent me to Parliament. He said that only Akhilesh Yadav would be able to tell better why the ticket has been cancelled." The SP leader said that Akhilesh is the leader of the party who decides about ticket selection.
"When the party has decided to field another candidate and the party's president has also sent me the letter then it was obvious that I won't be getting the symbol. I will not be campaigning in Moradabad for the party's candidate, it will be very disheartening for those who supported and prayed for me... Akhilesh Yadav has definitely sent me the letter, but when I tried to meet him, an 'outsider' MLA from the party captured his (Akhilesh Yadav) team so that I don't get to meet him."
