U.P. bypolls: Samajwadi Party names seventh candidate

The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday named former Bahujan Samaj Party Rajya Sabha MP Munkad Ali’s daughter Sumbul Rana as the party’s seventh candidate for the Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls. Sumbul, who will contest the Meerapur seat, is the daughter-in-law of former Muzaffarnagar MP Kadir Rana.

Her father Munkad Ali is currently the BSP coordinator for Uttarakhand and the Meerut division of Uttar Pradesh.

The SP’s move came amid indications that the party will leave at least two seats for the Congress, which said its ally should have refrained from making a unilateral announcement.

“It would be better if the Samajwadi Party makes announcement after holding discussions with the Congress on seat-sharing,” All India Congress Committee general secretary (in charge of U.P.) Avinash Pandey said.

The SP is yet to field candidates for the Ghaziabad Sadar, Khair (Aligarh) and Kundarki (Moradabad) assembly seat but may announce its candidate for Kundarki (Moradabad), leaving two seats for the Congress, people familar with the matter said.

Pandey said he hoped both the parties would soon reach a seat-sharing understanding for by-elections to nine U.P. assembly seats. The bypoll date for the 10th seat, Milkipur, has not been announced yet.

“We will contest the election in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and both the parties may reach a seat-sharing understanding soon. We hope the SP will give us a respectable number of seats,” said Pandey, speaking to Hindustan Times on the phone.

SP spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand said, “The Samajwadi Party is declaring candidates as the bypolls have been announced. The Congress party will also be given seats as per the talks going on between the SP and the Congress top leadership. Our national president has already said that we will abide by our ‘Gathbandhan Dharm’.”

Earlier in the day, a picture of Kadir Rana was circulated on the social media which gave rise to speculation that he could be the Samajwadi Party candidate for Meerapur. Eventually, Sumbul Rana’s name was announced.

Kadir Rana was with the BSP from 2008 to 2021 and thereafter joined the Samajwadi Party. He won the Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat on the BSP ticket in 2009. Meerapur is an assembly segment of Muzaffarnagar.

He had an earlier stint with the Samajwadi Party from 1993 to 2004. He was with the Congress from 2004 to 2006 and the RLD from 2006 to 2008.

Nagina MP Chandrashekhar of the Azad Samaj Party and Bahujan Samaj Party also have fielded Muslim candidates for Meerapur, which has a sizeable number of Muslim and Dalit voters.

The BJP has not yet declared its candidate for Meerapur though there are indications it may leave the seat for its ally RLD.

Chandan Chauhan of the RLD won the Meerapur assembly seat in 2022 as a joint candidate of the SP-RLD-Congress alliance. He vacated the assembly seat after he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bijnor on the RLD ticket in alliance with the BJP in June 2024.

The Meerapur assembly constituency came into existence in 2012 after delimitation in 2008. The BSP, BJP and the RLD have won the assembly seat once each in the last three elections.

The Samajwadi Party had earlier named party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin Tej Pratap Yadav as its candidate for the Karhal assembly seat. The party named Naseem Siddiqui, the wife of disqualified SP MLA Irfan Solanki, as its candidate from Sisamau, and Ajeet Prasad, the son of Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, from Milkipur in Ayodhya.

The SP has named Shobhawati Verma, wife of party’s Ambedkarnagar MP Lalji Verma, for the Katehri assembly seat.

The SP has fielded Mustafa Siddiqui from Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Jyoti Bind from Majhawan (Mirzapur).