This story is from March 23, 2019

Lok Sabha elections 2019: Danish not a surprise pick, Saharanpur is Mayawati googly

Lok Sabha elections 2019: Danish not a surprise pick, Saharanpur is Mayawati googly
LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party on Friday released the first list of 11 candidates for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, giving the prized Amroha seat to Danish Ali, who recently joined the party and was the brain behind the JD(S)-BSP-Congress alliance in Karnataka. But Mayawati sprung a surprise by fielding Haji Fazlur Rehman from Saharanpur, stronghold of Congress’ Imran Masood.
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Danish Ali’s candidature from Amroha has not come as a surprise as it was common knowledge that his seat was decided even before he joined BSP on March 16.
A native of Bulandshahr, Danish holds sway over minorities in Amroha and as a BSP candidate, he will also receive support of Dalits. The day he joined BSP, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said the move has his “blessings” and was aimed at “political gains”.
The candidature of Haji Fazlur Rehman from Saharanpur has come as a surprise as he would eat into minority votes of Congress candidate Imran Masood, who polled over 4 lakh votes in 2014 despite the Modi wave. The split in minority vote could end up benefitting BJP, say political analysts.
BSP’s list is focused on west UP — the region that will go to polls in the first round — and also includes Haji Mohammad Yaqoob, who will contest from Meerut. Yaqoob made headlines when he announced a bounty of Rs 51 crore to anyone who would behead a Danish cartoonist for his alleged blasphemous depiction of the Prophet.
Malook Nagar, a Gujjar leader, has been given ticket from Bijnor. The seat was expected to be given to Ruchi Veera, earlier with SP and who switched to BSP in January just before the alliance was announced. However, after massive protests in the local party unit, the ticket has been given to Nagar. Veera, meanwhile, is now being fielded from Aonla. She won the Bijnor byelections in 2014, but lost to BJP’s Suchi Chaudhary in the 2017 assembly polls. Kunwar Bhartendra Singh, who was Bijnor MLA before Veera, is the BJP candidate from the constituency.

Yogesh Verma, party’s candidate from Bulandshahr, is a former party MLA from Hastinapur. He was sacked for alleged anti-party activities, but re-inducted within a few years. Bulandshahr is a reserved constituency.
Girish Chandra will be contesting from Nagina, another reserved seat from which Mayawati once contested and has a sizeable population of Muslims and Dalits, a core BSP support group. The other reserved seat, Agra, will see Manoj Kumar Soni represent the alliance. He will be contesting against SP Singh Baghel, the sitting BJP MLA from UP.
Rajvir Singh has been fielded form Fatehpur Sikri. He will have a face-off with Congress heavyweight Raj Babbar.
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