In Moradabad seat, Akhilesh has a lot on his plate besides a sulking, dropped sitting MP

With just over a week to go for the Lok Sabha polls, the battle for the Moradabad Lok Sabha seat is getting more intriguing by the day. The latest twist in the tale came on Monday with the Samajwadi Party (SP), which was earlier fighting confusion over candidate selection, replacing its district chief D P Yadav with Jaiveer Yadav.

The move has yet again brought to the fore the infighting that erupted within the SP in Moradabad after it replaced sitting MP S T Hasan with Ruchi Veera, who is seen as jailed party leader and strongman Azam Khan’s pick.

Sources said D P Yadav was replaced as his participation in Veera’s campaign was not “up to the party’s expectations”. Hasan has already distanced himself from Veera’s campaign after he was snubbed by the party.

All eyes are now on SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s rally on April 14, with Jaiveer saying he would persuade senior leaders to convince Hasan to join it. “It will send out a good message to voters if Hasan sahab comes out in support (of Veera). My immediate task is to pacify everyone who is upset with the change of candidate,” he told The Indian Express.

Justifying the organisational change just ahead of the polls, SP state president Naresh Uttam said D P Yadav was taking decisions unilaterally and it did not go down well with many in the party. “Jaiveer is more experienced and Veera too appreciates his work,” he said while exuding confidence that “everything would be normal soon”.

A section of SP leaders feel replacing Hasan, a former mayor of Moradabad who is a popular figure in the area also by virtue of his medical practice, with Veera – a Hindu – can move a section of Muslim voters away from the party towards the BSP, which has fielded Irfan Saifi, the current chairman of