Lucknow: Giving a stiff resistance to the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded a large number of turncoats and kins of bigwigs in the assembly polls.
The third list of SP released on Thursday include the name of a dozen legislators who had recently switched loyalties from other parties. Besides the sons of prominent senior leaders have also been preferred as candidates by Samajwadi Party. Among the turncoats who managed to get SP tickets are former BSP legislators Vinay Tiwari, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Lalji Verma, Nafees Ahmad and Dara Singh Chauhan who had left BJP to join it.
Among the kins of senior leaders, SP has given ticket to Kamlakant Rajbhar, the son of late BSP legislator Sukhdeo Rajbhar and Rakesh Verma who is the son of former union minister Beni Prasad Verma. Son of former BSP minister Ram Prasad Choudhury, Atul Choudhury has also been given SP ticket in the third list.
While the party has mainly obliged the backward community with its ticket, a large number of candidates from the upper caste have also been chosen. In the third list, the party has given tickets to 23 backwards and nine upper caste candidates. Names of senior SP leaders Ram Govind Choudhury, Arvind Singh Gope, Fareed Mahfooz Qidwai, Sangram Singh, Lallai Yadav and Alam Badi also figured in the third list of candidates.
Meanwhile Congress too has released its third list of 89 candidates, which include 37 women. The party had announced that it would give assembly tickets to 40 per cent women.
