Lok Sabha elections 2024: Samajwadi Party fields Mukhtar Ansari's brother Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur in second list

Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) on Monday announced its candidates from 11 seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. This is the second list from the party and includes the name of Afzal Ansari, brother of gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari. Afzal Ansari fought the 2019 Lok Sabha election on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket but was disqualified from the Parliament in 2023 after a conviction in a murder case.

The other names in the list include Harendra Malik, who will contest from Neeraj Maurya from Aonla, Usha Verma from Hardoi, S P Singh Patel from Pratapgarh, Shreya Verma from Gonda among others.

Earlier, the Samajwadi Party released the first list of candidates for the , which included the name of Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav. The other candidates on the list include Shafiqur Rahman Barq from Sambhal, Ravidas Mehrotra from Lucknow, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, Devesh Shakya from Etah, Dharmendra Yadav from Budaun, Utkarsh Verma from Kheri, Anand Bhadauria from Dhaurahra, Anu Tandon from Unnao, Naval Kishore from Farrukhabad, Rajaram Pal from Akbarpur, Shivshankar Singh Patel from Banda, Awadhesh Prasad from Faizabad, Lalji Verma from Ambedkar Nagar, Ramprasad Chaudhary from Basti, and Kajal Nishad from Gorakhpur.

The second list came after Akhilesh Yadav's signal to that he would join his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra after the seat-sharing modalities were decided. Samajwadi Party is part of the Opposition and has offered 17 seats to Congress for the Lok Sabha elections.

"Talks are currently ongoing, lists have come from their side and ours as well. The moment the seats are distributed and decided, the Samajwadi Party will join," Akhilesh Yadav told reporters on Monday.