Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday announced 10 candidates for the ongoing UP Assembly elections including for Lucknow Cantonment seat from which Aparna Yadav -- the younger daughter-in-law of party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav -- had unsuccessfully contested in 2017.
The SP has given ticket to Pooja Shukla from Lucknow North and Raju Gandhi from the Cantt seat.
Shukla, a first timer, had hogged the headlines in 2017 for allegedly waving black flags at UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow University.
In the 2017 UP Assembly elections, BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi had defeated Aparna Yadav from Lucknow Cantt. She later became the Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad, and was replaced in the bypolls by BJP's Suresh Chandra Tiwari.
"The party has fielded Pooja Shukla from Lucknow North assembly constituency. She is a first-timer, and she was among the students who had waved black flags at UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while he was going to Lucknow University for an event," SP MLC and spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan told PTI.
In June 2017, as Adityanath's cavalcade moved towards the Lucknow University where he was invited as the chief guest, activists from Samajwadi Party Chatra Sabha and other student groups squatted on the road and showed black flags.
As a consequence, the Lucknow University had suspended and debarred eight students from the university citing "security breach" in the chief minister's convoy.
Pooja Shukla was also in the list of eight students who were suspended by the Lucknow University.
The party has decided to field Gomti Yadav from Bakshi ka Talab and Ravidas Mehrotra from Lucknow Central again.
It has also fielded its spokesman Anurag Bhadauria from Lucknow East, the same constituency from where he had contested as a Congress candidate in 2017, when the SP and Congress had contested the UP assembly elections together.
The party has fielded Munna Alvi (from Bangarmau in Unnao), Shyam Sundar Bharti (from Bachhravan-SC in Rae Bareli), Tahir Khan (from Issauli in Sultanpur) and Vishambhar Yadav (from Baberu in Banda).(PTI)
