Samajwadi Party cancels, then announces ticket for rape accused former state minister Manoj Paras

BIJNOR: With the implication that the Samajwadi party would be giving tickets only to leaders with a clean image, the party’s sitting MLA from Nagina constituency here, Manoj Paras, accused in a rape case, was first denied a re-nomination when the party’s list of candidates was announced. His ticket had instead been given to former MP Yashveer Singh. Hours later, however, Paras was finally given the ticket.
With the SP announcing its first list of 191 candidates on Friday, there have been some changes in Bijnor district. Sherwaz Pathan, who had fought the election on an SP ticket in 2012 and had been declared a candidate this time in an earlier announcement, was replaced with Arshad Ansari. Pathan joined the Congress on Thursday, after apparently coming to know in advance about the party’s decision. Aabid Ansari,a Shivpal nominee who had been named as the party candidate for Badapur seat, has been placed with Sheikh Suleman.
Early on Friday, the SP list mentioned former MP Yashveer Singh as its candidate from Nagina, replacing sitting MLA Paras. However, within a few hours, Paras was announced as the party’s candidate for the seat.
Talking to TOI, SP district president Anil Yadav said, “I had heard that MLA Paras had not been given the ticket for Nagina. I received some calls about this. Soon afterwards, Paras was announced as the candidate. I do not know why he was removed from the list earlier or why the decision was reversed.”
Paras had been accused by a woman of raping her in 2007, when he was not an MLA. The SP government had removed him from a ministerial post in 2012 but had withdrawn the case against him in 2014, prompting criticism. Some days ago the survivor had gone to Lucknow and met senior SP leaders demanding that Paras not be given a ticket. According to party sources, the decision was then taken not to renominate him.