Hindustan Times (Bathinda)

Oppn may field BJP minister’s mother in bypoll

- Kumar Uttam and Aurangzeb Naqshbandi letters@hindustant­imes.com (With inputs from K Sandeep Kumar in Allahabad)

NEW DELHI: The Samajwadi Party and the Congress are discussing fielding the mother of a Union minister against the BJP in the March 11 by-election to the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh.

Krishna Patel is Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel’s mother and the wife of late Sone Lal Patel, an OBC leader who founded the Apna Dal in 1995. Krishna and Anupriya lead different factions of the party.

Sone Lal — with considerab­le following among the Kurmis of eastern UP — had unsuccessf­ully contested from Phulpur in 2009, but stood third with 76,669 votes. Krishna unsuccessf­ully contested last year’s assembly election from Rohaniya in Varanasi, a seat Anupriya won in the 2012 election.

“The Samajwadi Party wants Krishna Patel to contest on its symbol,” a leader privy to the discussion said. She, however, is insisting on entering the fray as an Apna Dal candidate, supported by the SP and the Congress. The SP is averse to the propositio­n, a leader close to former CM Akhilesh Yadav said, adding that negotiatio­ns were still on between the two sides.

Senior leaders of Apna Dal in Allahabad admitted that the Congress and the SP had contacted Krishna. They claimed that the final decision in this regard was expected within the next few days. Krishna, however, denied being contacted by any party.

“No political party has contacted me yet in this regard. I will be able to comment on this later,” she said. February 20 is the last date to file nomination­s. The poll was necessitat­ed following the resignatio­n of Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Phulpur is a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, which it lost to the BJP in 2014 when the latter stormed to power in Delhi with a clear majority. Maurya defeated SP’S candidate by a margin of over three lakh in the 2014 parliament­ary election.

Maurya polled over five lakh votes in 2014, more than ten times of BJP’S 2009 tally of 44,828 votes.

The SP and the Congress expect that the BSP will keep away from the bypoll and Krishna will put up a spirited battle against BJP if she contests as a joint candidate. Kurmis — an OBC community — are the single-largest constituen­ts of Phulpur, with estimates suggesting they constitute over four lakh out of a total of more than 19 lakh voters. Phulpur is a prestige battle that the BJP is trying to win after a splendid show in last year’s assembly election.

 ?? PTI FILE ?? Krishna Patel is junior health minister Anupriya Patel’s (in pic) mother and the wife of late Sone Lal Patel, an OBC leader who founded the Apna Dal in 1995.
PTI FILE Krishna Patel is junior health minister Anupriya Patel’s (in pic) mother and the wife of late Sone Lal Patel, an OBC leader who founded the Apna Dal in 1995.

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