After its boss Akhilesh Yadav’s karhal seat, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is pulling out all the stops to secure a victory in the Malhani stronghold constituency in Jaunpur district, where gangster-turned-politician Dhananjay Singh is fighting for tickets to Janata Dal (United). The party plans to host a public show by SP patron and founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brother Shivpal Yadav.

Mulayam and Shivpal only fought for Akhilesh and Shivpal never fought for any other SP candidates. Akhilesh has repeatedly criticized Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for failing to arrest Singh, despite multiple videos showing him “walking freely”. On January 5, Akhilesh tweeted a video of Singh playing cricket in public, saying: “BJP Jobs: Criminals on the loose. Babaji, list your top 10 nearest mafia, Then form a team. As with the IPL, you should form an ‘MBL’ which means ‘Mafia BJP League’. The police chief has already laid out his space and he is the captain. That completes the eleven.”

A day later, as disputes erupted, the state government handed over the investigation into Ajit’s murder to the UP Police Task Force (STF). Singh was the accused in the murder of former Mao group Pramukh Ajit Singh in Lucknow on January 6 last year. Lucknow police obtained a warrant for Dhananjay’s arrest in February last year after discovering his alleged involvement in the case.

Now that both Shivpal and Mulayam will be presenting public projects in Malhani on 2-3 February, and party leader Naresh Uttam Patel is already stationed in Malhani, it is clear that the SP wants to secure their candidate Singh and is going to great lengths to ensure this.

The SP nominated current MLA Lucky Yadav, the son of seven-time MLA, two-time MP and three-time late minister Parasnath Yadav, who is believed to be close to Mulayam.

The seat was won by Lucky Yadav in a by-election following his father’s death, who won the constituency by a narrow margin of 4,632 votes in the 2020 by-election, with Singh in second place.

Complete news Source : The Indian Express