Nomination closes today, SP has no candidate in Azam Khan turf Rampur

ONE DAY to go for nominations for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections to close, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is yet to announce a candidate for the Rampur seat, which used to be the turf of its senior leader Azam Khan. On Tuesday evening, the SP’s Rampur unit released a letter saying it was “boycotting” the elections.

Khan is jailed since October 2023 following conviction in a case of forgery, disqualifying him from contesting the elections. Last week, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav visited him in jail – for the first time since he was imprisoned – apparently to “consult” him on Rampur and surrounding seats. SP sources said that at the meeting, Khan requested that Akhilesh himself contest from Rampur, citing “special circumstances” in the constituency.

However, till late Tuesday, the SP had no candidate in Rampur, one of eight Uttar Pradesh seats voting in the first phase on April 19.

Local SP leaders, despondent over Khan’s absence from the scene, said they too had requested Akhilesh to contest, but got no response.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said the matter was not over, and that the call for the party unit to boycott the polls in Rampur was just a “suggestion”. “The final decision will be taken by the party national president (Akhilesh),” Chaudhary said.

He added that while there was no question of Akhilesh contesting from Rampur, the SP would have a candidate in the fray by Wednesday.

The BJP has renominated from the seat Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi, who won a bypoll to the Rampur Lok Sabha seat in June 2022 and is the sitting MP. The bypoll was necessitated due to Khan’s decision to leave the seat after winning the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections held in February-March 2022.

Lodhi is scheduled to file his nomination on