Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party (SP) released the first list of candidates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly eletions on Monday. In the list of 159 candidates, the party has paid full attention to the social equation. Expressing confidence in them, SP has fielded 31 Muslim candidates in the first list for the UP polls.
Apart from this, 15 Yadavs, 31 Scheduled Castes, 24 Savarnas and 48 Non-Yadavs (OBC) have given tickets. Small parties and people from other parties, who recently joined the SP, have also been given a chance.
The Samajwadi Party, which is also called the Muslim-Yadav party, has paid more attention to Dalits, backward and upper castes this time. At the same time, nine women are also included in the first list. Among those who got tickets for the party, nine are those who switched parties from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to SP. At the same time, seven defectors who came from the BJP to SP have also been given tickets. SP has also given tickets to two Congress leaders who recently switched sides to join SP.
SP's bet on defectors
Two leaders from the BJP, including Dharam Singh Saini, have been given tickets by the SP. The 9 women who have been given tickets include Kumari Bimlesh and Supriya Aron who recently left Congress and joined SP. Congress had given a ticket to Aron from Bareilly Cantt., now she will be the SP candidate from the same seat. Aron had joined the SP on Saturday along with her husband, former MP Praveen Aron.
Also read: UP polls: Samajwadi Party names 159 candidates; Akhilesh Yadav to contest from Karhal
Kumari Bimlesh, who was a Congress candidate from Chandausi in 2017, will be the SP candidate from there this time. Bimlesh, however, had to face defeat from Chandausi in 2017. Usha Maurya, who was nominated from the Hussainganj seat was also in the Congress untill a year ago. She took the membership of SP in February 2021. Since then she was among the contenders for the ticket.
| SP Candidates (Category) | Number of Seats |
| Non-Yadav (OBC) | 48 |
| Muslim | 31 |
| Scheduled Caste (SC) | 31 |
| Upper Caste (Savarna) | 24 |
| Yadav | 15 |
| Woman | 9 |
Also read: UP Polls: Wife of BJP leader, slams CM Yogi, joins SP
