This story is from March 23, 2019

Lok Sabha elections: Not Moradabad, Raj Babbar finds Fatehpur Sikri safe

Conceding to UP Congress president Raj Babbar’s demand, the party shifted him from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri and also fielded BSP turncoat Naseemuddin Siddiqui from Bijnor.
Lok Sabha elections: Not Moradabad, Raj Babbar finds Fatehpur Sikri safe
LUCKNOW: Conceding to UP Congress president Raj Babbar’s demand, the party shifted him from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri and also fielded BSP turncoat Naseemuddin Siddiqui from Bijnor. Former Samajwadi Party MP and bandit Dadua’s brother, Balkumar Patel, has been named the party candidate from Banda.
A close confidant of BSP supremo Mayawati and the party’s Muslim face, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, parted ways in February 2018 and joined Congress.
He campaigned extensively for the party in Lok Sabha bypolls in May 2018. Another important name in the list, released well past midnight on Friday, is that of Praveen Aron from Bareilly, who won the seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Babbar’s name from Moradabad seat was announced in Congress’ second list released on March 13. Others in the list include Imran Pratapgarhiya from Moradabad, Trilokiram Diwakar from Hathras, Preeta Harit from Agra, Virendra Kumar from Hardoi and Girish Chand from Kaushambi. In all, the party has fielded 46 candidates so far.
Sources in the party brass said the UPCC president Raj Babbar preferred Fatehpur Sikri as he also has a support base in the constituency from where he was in fray in 2008. “Soon after his name from Moradabad was announced, he urged the party leadership to give him a fair chance. We are hopeful the central election committee would concede,” said leader in Babbar’s core group. Babbar has been two-time MP from Agra — 1999 and 2004. In 2008, when Election Commission of India’s delimitation exercise changed contours of many constituencies, Babbar moved to Fatehpur Sikri. Congress sources said even Moradabad, which was won by Congress in 2009, was a calculated move. Cricketer-turned politician Mohammad Azharuddin won the seat and secured more than three lakh votes. He defeated Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh aka Rakesh Singh by a margin of 50,000 votes.
Modi wave added to Sarvesh Singh’s influence in 2014. The five-time MLA defeated SP’s ST Hasan by a margin of around one lakh votes. BJP repeated him for 2019. The Samajwadi Party is likely to field a Muslim candidate who can upset the matrix for Raj Babbar.
author
About the Author
Shailvee Sharda

Journalist with the Times of India since August 2004, Shailvee Sharda writes on Health, Culture and Politics. Having covered the length and breadth of UP, she brings stories that define elements like human survival and its struggle, faiths, perceptions and thought processes that govern the decision making in everyday life, during big events such as an election, tangible and non-tangible cultural legacy and the cost and economics of well-being. She keenly follows stories that celebrate hope and life in general.

End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA