UP elections: Family ties put on a test amid race for tickets

In pollbound Uttar Pradesh family ties are going through a test as closely related candidates pull out all stops in their hunt for ticketsDriven with ambition close relatives are trying to elbow out each other for a nomination in various assembly segmentsOne glaring case of family tussle is in Sarojini nagar assembly seat in Lucknow where minister Swati Singh and her BJP state vice president husband Dayashankar Singh are locked in a ticket raceAnother keen tugofwar is witnessed in Amethi where the first and second wife of former Congress stalwart Sanjay Singh are vying for the BJP nominationGarima Singh Singhrsquos first wife is sitting MLA of BJP from AmethiBut when Sanjay Singh defected to BJP his present wife Amita Singh emerged as her challengerSanjay Singh had given up his Rajya Sabha seat before joining BJP in July 2019Sources close to him said he is lobbying to secure nomination for Amita Singh the former Badminton player he married after divorcing Garima Singh in 1995In the 2017 state election Amita Singh then contesting on a Congress ticket had stood fourth in the seatBJPrsquos Lok Sabha coordinator Rajesh Masala told PTIBhasha that partyrsquos word will be final in the choice of candidatesldquoSelection of a candidate is no issue here Whoever the party gives the ticket their victory will be ensuredrdquo he saidContest for ticket has created fissure in a prominent political family in Ghazipur district tooKin of deceased musclemanpolitician Krishnanad Rai are competing with each other for the BJP ticketRai a former BJP MLA from Mohammadabad was gunned down in 2005Political strongman Mukhtar Ansari and Munna Bajrangi were booked in this connectionIn the subsequent bypoll his wife Alka Rai had won the seat and won it again in 2017 on a BJP ticket defeating Mukhtar Ansarirsquos brother Simatullah Ansari a Samajwadi Party leaderSources in the family said that Alka Rai is now trying for nomination of his son Piyush Rai from the seatBut Krishanandrsquos elder brotherrsquos son Anand Rai too has staked a claim on the seat putting up banners in the arealdquoEverybody knows that after the death of my uncle I sacrificed my youth for the family as well as for the people of the arealdquoIn addition to fighting the court cases I faced challenges from rivals and Alka Rai merely remained a lsquochehrarsquo facerdquo Anand Rai told PTIBhashaldquoI ensured her victory in elections and now she is trying a BJP ticket for her son how can I tolerate thisrdquo On the controversies BJP state leader Naveen Srivastava said people are free to seek tickets but they will have to accept the decision of the party when it makes themGhorawal BJP MLA Anil Maurya and his elder brother Udaylal Maurya who left BJP and joined SP too might be pitted against each otherIn Gorakhpur districtrsquos Chillupar assembly segment exminister Markanday Chandrsquos son C P Chand and his cousinrsquos wife BJP State Women Cell vice president Ashmita Chand are trying for the party nominationC P Chand who was elected MLC from SP had recently switched over to the BJPldquoThere is no clash within the familyrdquo Ranvijay Chand a member of the family saidldquoWhile C P Chand will contest the poll for legislative council Ashmita Chand is preparing for the assembly election This is the view of the family We are waiting for the party decisionrdquo he saidIn Bidhuna assembly seat in Auraiya district a father and his daughter have found themselves in the opposite campsSitting BJP MLA Vinay Shakya left the party to join SP along with Swami Prasad Maurya and othersHis daughter Riya Shakya opposed the decision and blamed his grandmother and uncle for the defection Sources said she is preparing to contest against her father on a BJP ticketFormer union home minister Ramlal Rahirsquos son Suresh Rahi has been named as its candidate by the BJP from Hargoan seat in Sitapur district while his exMLA elder brother Ramesh Rahi is seeking SP ticketRecently Congress prominent face in western UP Imran Masood switched over to the SP while his elder brother Noman Masood embraced BSPCracks have surfaced in SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadavrsquos clan tooHis younger daughterinlaw Aparna Yadav and other close relatives Hariom Yadav and Pramod Gupta have joined BJP leaving the Akhilesh Yadavled SPLikewise in Apna Dal union state minister Anupriya Patel and her mother Krishna Patel are two leading factions of partyFormer minister Swami Prasad Maurya may have walked out of BJP to join SP but his Badaun MP daughter Sanghmitra Maurya continues to remain in the saffron partyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever