LUCKNOW: In an apparent bid to send out the message that the party was objective in giving tickets only to winnable candidates, Samajwadi Party state chief
Shivpal Yadav announced names of nine sitting ministers, including three staunch Akhilesh loyalists in the list of 68 candidates released by the party late Thursday evening.
The list, released after a go-head by the party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, includes names of senior ministers in Akhilesh cabinet
Abhishek Misra
,
Kamal Akhtar
and Yasir Shah, all of whom were present at CM’s residence since early Thursday to pledge their support to him. While Misra, minister for vocational edcuation and skill development will contest from Lucknow (North), Kamal Akhtar, minister for food and civil supplies has been declared party candidate from Hasanpur assembly seat in Amroha from where he is the sitting MLA. Minister for stamps, registration and trade tax
Yasir Shah will contest from Matera in Bahraich
Other minister in Akhilesh cabinet who figured in the list includes Shivkant Ojha (health), Shankhlal Manjhi (social welfare—cabinet rank) and Banshidhar Baudh (MoS social welfare), apart from Moolchandra Chauhan, Narendra Singh Verma and Sudhir Kumar Rawat. Most of them have stood by Akhilesh in the recent battle for supremacy within the SP that unfolded in Lucknow on Thursday.
The list includes name of mafia-don-turned-politican Abhay Singh from Gosainganj assemby constituency of Faizabad district. Of the 68 candidates declared on Thursday, 15 are Muslims and nine Yadavs apart from Brahmins, Thakurs and members of the schedule caste and schedule tribe.
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