Samajwadi Party Changes Candidate Again, This Time In Gautam Buddha Nagar

Over a week after declaring Rahul Awana as its candidate for Lok Sabha elections in Gautam Buddha Nagar, the Samajwadi Party (SP) nominated Dr Mahendra Nagar again on Thursday (28 March).

Notably, in a list released on 16 March, Dr Mahendra Nagar was declared as the SP candidate. However, he was replaced by Rahul Awana in a list released on 20 March.

Nagar's candidature has now been finalised at the party's Lucknow headquarters in the presence of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, as per Jagran.

This comes after a complaint was registered against Rahul Awana for the violation of the election's Model Code of Conduct.

Nagar is a Gujjar by caste while the BJP has fielded its sitting MP Mahesh Sharma for the third consecutive time. The voting is scheduled for 26 April.

The SP had not contested this seat in the 2019 elections as the seat was under Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) quota when they contested in alliance together.

This is not the first instance in these Lok Sabha elections, where the SP is seen changing its candidates at the last moment.

Sitting MP S T Hasan was declared as the candidate in Moradabad but was replaced by Ruchi Veera after filing his nomination. Similarly, there was last-minute suspense over the Rampur candidate as well.

The SP also changed its Bijnor candidate, replacing Yashveer Singh with Deepak Saini. Similarly, Rampal Rajvanshi was replaced by Manoj Kumar Rajvanshi in Misrikh.