Lucknow: Upset over party’s decision to pick Nakul Dubey as the candidate from Sitapur, workers of the Bahujan Samaj Party protested outside supremo Mayawati’s residence in Lucknow on Friday.
The party is yet to announce Dubey’s candidature from Sitapur, but speculations are rife. The locals believe that ‘parachute’ candidate Dubey’s selection may disturb the caste arithmetic in the constituency. Dubey is a Brahmin, while Sitapur is dominated by Muslim and Dalit population.
According to information, the party is likely to field Nakul Dubey, a close confidante of BSP General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra.
The dissent over Dubey’s probable candidature has been brewing among the workers of SP and BSP for sometime now. Earlier, he was faced with protests in Sitapur where he was holding a joint meeting of SP and BSP workers.
The workers of SP and BSP chanted slogans “parachute nahi chalega (parachute will not work)” and “parachute vapas jao (parachute go back)”. A scuffle soon broke out between both groups as well as Dubey’s supporters, with the brawling members flinging chairs at each other.
BSP workers said the people of Sitapur would prefer a local candidate. “We appeal respected behenji and Akhilesh Yadavji to not field any parachute candidate from the seat,” they said.
The BJP’s Rajesh Verma had won the Sitapur seat in the 2014 elections, bagging more than four lakh votes. He will contest from a BJP ticket again. Runner-up Kaiser Jahan, formerly a BSP candidate, will fight on a Congress ticket. SP candidate in 2014, Bharat Tripathi had bagged approximately 1.5 lakh votes last time.
Akhilesh Yadav’s SP and Mayawati’s BSP had forged a pre-poll alliance and as per the division of seats, Sitapur was allocated to the BSP. Dubey, an advocate by profession, was the urban development minister in the BSP regime. He was appointed as the in-charge for Sitapur Lok Sabha seat last month. The constituency has been a BSP bastion since 1999. But the BJP in 2014 rode the Modi wave to win the seat.
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