The Samajwadi Party on Monday declared 11 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming general elections with the list also including the name of Lok Sabha MP Afzal Ansari.
The party's announcement comes amid the offer of 17 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress, an alliance partner in the INDIA bloc.
Afzal Ansari, who is the sitting BSP MP from Ghazipur parliamentary constituency, has been fielded from the same seat by the SP.
The Supreme Court had in December 2023 conditionally suspended Ansari's conviction in a 2007 Gangsters Act case, saying his constituency will be deprived of its legitimate representation in the legislature since a by-election may not be held given the remaining tenure of the current Lok Sabha.
The other candidates announced by the party are Harendra Malik (Muzaffarnagar), Neeraj Maurya (Aonla), Rajesh Kashyap (Shahjahanpur-SC), Usha Verma (Hardoi-SC), RK Chaudhary (Mohanlalganj-SC), SP Singh Patel (Pratapgarh), Ramesh Gautam (Bahraich-SC), Shreya Verma (Gonda), Virendra Singh (Chandauli) and Rampal Rajvanshi (Misrikh-SC).
Of the 11, four hail from the backward community, five from the Scheduled Caste category, Virendra Singh is a Thakur, while Afzal Ansari is a Muslim.
The Samajwadi Party has been facing flak from party leaders and alliance partners over not giving tickets to the PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) candidates for the ongoing Rajya Sabha elections. -- PTI