Samajwadi Party surprise: Pooja Shukla gets Abhishek Mishra’s seat
LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday announced candidates for six of the nine Lucknow assembly constituencies, with the biggest surprise being denial of ticket to former minister Abhishek Mishra from Lucknow North constituency and fielding firebrand students’ leader Pooja Shukla, 25, instead.
Shukla and some Lucknow University (LU) students had shown black flags to chief minister Yogi Adityanath during a protest by the students on LU campus in June 2017. She was then arrested and sent to jail along with a few other protesting students.
Though the ticket to Shukla was not a surprise, as she was assured the same on one of the Lucknow constituencies by the SP after she had met party chief Akhilesh Yadav last week, fielding her on Abhishek Mishra’s seat was totally unexpected.
Mishra is known as one of the think tanks of the SP and the SP government -- from 2012-2017. Party sources, meanwhile, say that if the SP forms the government, Mishra will be a minister again through the UP legislative council route. He may or may not contest the 2022 assembly polls.The party has fielded Shukla with an intent to win the seat again. Shukla, like Mishra, is a Brahmin. Another surprise was the new SP candidate on the Lucknow West seat. Instead of giving a ticket to Rehan Naeem, who won the seat in 2012 and lost in 2017, the party gave the ticket to BSP-turned-SP leader Armaan Khan, who came third on the seat on a BSP ticket in 2017. Armaan had joined the SP soon after the 2017 polls.
On the Bakshi Ka Talab seat, the SP has retained Gomti Yadav as its candidate, who won the seat in 2012 and came third in 2017.
The SP’s Anurag Bhadouria, who contested the Lucknow East seat on the Congress ticket as part of the SP-Congress alliance pact, will contest the seat again -- this time on his party’s ticket.
On Lucknow Central, the SP has fielded Ravidas Mehrotra yet again. He won it in 2012 and lost it to BJP candidate Brajesh Pathak -- currently a minister in the Yogi cabinet.
On the Lucknow Cantt seat, the SP has fielded Raju Gandhi. The party had never won this seat and had fielded Akhilesh’s sister-in-law and Mulayam daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav in 2017. She came second on the seat and now has moved to the BJP.
Now, the Sarojini Nagar seat of Lucknow is the only one where the SP has not announced a candidate yet. Mahilhabad and Mohanlalganj candidates were declared earlier.
On Tuesday, the SP also declared candidates for Bangarmau seat of Unnao, Bachrawan seat of Rae Bareli, Isauli of Sultanpur and Baberu of Banda.