New Delhi, Oct. 3 -- The Samajwadi Party has changed its candidates for two seats in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections, replacing its nominees for the Agra Graduates and Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers constituencies. The party has now fielded Akash Agarwal from the Agra Graduates constituency and Sanjayan Tripathi from the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers constituency. The SP had earlier nominated Shashank Yadav from Agra and Kamlesh Yadav from the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers seat.
The change in the Gorakhpur-Faizabad constituency is politically significant as Tripathi was earlier seeking a BJP ticket for the election. The BJP, however, chose sitting MLC Dhruv Kumar Tripathi as its candidate. After being denied the BJP ticket, Sanjayan Tripathi had announced that he would contest as an independent candidate and filed his nomination on October 2. His entry into the SP fold now changes the contest in the teachers' constituency.
Elections for 11 Legislative Council seats in Uttar Pradesh are scheduled for October 23, while counting will take place on October 27. The candidate changes come amid an intensifying political contest in the state ahead of the Assembly elections.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.