Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party (SP) and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) will together contest the Mainpuri Lok Sabha and Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly by-elections to be held on December 5, the SP said on Wednesday.
The Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat has fallen vacant after the SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly seats have fallen vacant after the disqualification SP’s Azam Khan and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vikram Saini, respectively. It has happened after they were convicted in separate cases.
In a tweet, the party has said the SP would field its candidates from Rampur assembly and Mainpuri parliamentary constituencies, the RLD candidate will contest from Khatauli.
The results of the by-elections will be declared on December 8, but the Supreme Court asked the Election Commission not to issue till Thursday the notification for the by-election in Rampur Sadar. Meanwhile, president of the RLD Jayant Chaudhary said that his party would continue to have alliance with the SP.
Chaudhary told reporters that whether it is big or small election, his party alliance with the SP would continue.
The RLD which has contested the Khadauli seat has got another chance to do that, and the party workers will support the SP candidates in Rampur and Mainpuri.
According to sources in the SP, party president Akhilesh Yadav held a meeting with senior leaders at the party headquarters in Lucknow to discuss the candidates for Mainpuri and Rampur. Political observers say that while Tej Pratap Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav are prospective candidates from Mainpur, the party nominee from Rampur may be of Khan’s choice. He has represented Rampur Sadar 10 times in the assembly and his wife Tazeen Fatima won from the seat once.
