For SP, Ram Gopal's Firozabad stronghold may be hard to defend this time

FIROZABAD: Of the five assembly constituencies in Firozabad district, the Samajwadi Party has given tickets to relative newcomers on three. This has triggered considerable dissatisfaction among a section of party workers, who in turn have stayed away from campaign activities, raising a question mark on the ruling party’s fate in the district, which is considered a stronghold of Ram Gopal Yadav .
According to sources, there is huge resentment over the party giving a ticket to Shiv Singh Chak, who recently defected from the BJP, while SP veterans were ignored.
Likewise, first-timers Sanjay Kumar and Shiv Pratap Singh will contest from Shikohabad and Jasrana respectively. In Jasrana, Shiv Pratap Singh will be battling four-time MLA and Mulayam loyalist Ramvir Singh Yadav, who recently joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal. The SP had won three seats — Sirsaganj, Jasrana and Shikohabad — in the previous assembly election, while one seat each was retained by BJP (Firozabad) and BSP (Tundla).
Former SP MLA Mohan Dev Shankhwar, who joined the BJP on Friday, said, “I had won Tundla seat for the SP in 2002, contesting elections from there for the first time. But since then, the party never gave me any chance to prove my mettle. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav does not have any say in the party today, and it has been reduced to a group of sycophants.” Shankhwar had been seeking a ticket from Tundla, but it was given to BJP defector Chak at the last moment.
Mulayam had become the chief minister in 1993 after winning Shikohabad seat. Later, Akhilesh Yadav had contested and won the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat in 2009. Since 2014, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav made Firozabad his political ground and his son won Lok Sabha elections from this constituency. Winning seats from Firozabad is now associated with Ram Gopal’s prestige, said local leaders.
SP insiders said loyalists of Mulayam and Shivpal might not have raised the banner of revolt openly, but have been quietly staying away from the campaign, which might harm the SP-Congress alliance’s prospects.
Both Sanjay Kumar and Shiv Pratap Singh do not have any sound support base in the party. Kumar used to be a leader of SP’s wing Lohia Vahini, before being handpicked by Ram Gopal. The same goes for Shiv Pratap, whose father Balbir Singh was an MLA in the 1980s from the RLD.
“No one knew much about them before they were announced as candidates,” said an SP leader.
As far as Chak is concerned, he had become MLA on a BJP ticket in 1996, but latter lost in 2002 and 2007 assembly elections contesting from the same party.