SP to announce candidates list 1 year ahead of UP polls, samajwadi party , opposition , Mulayam Singh Yadav , mayawati , SP candidates , BSP ,Uttar Pradesh polls 2017,UP assembly election 2016,Uttar Pradesh assembly poll ,samajwadi party candidates

SP to announce candidates list 1 year ahead of UP polls,samajwadi party , opposition , Mulayam Singh Yadav , mayawati , SP candidates , BSP ,Uttar Pradesh polls 2017,UP assembly election 2016,Uttar Pradesh assembly poll ,samajwadi party candidates

NEW DELHI: Mulayam Singh Yadav led Samajwadi Party (SP) is planning to announce at least half its candidates about a year ahead of the 2017 assembly elections as an Opposition Mayawati-led BSP and BJP have started making noises in the state with an eye on the polls.

The SP leadership has begun the exercise of candidate selection, people familiar with the developments told ET. In fact, it has decided to finalise candidates for 175 seats on a priority basis where the party does not have MLAs.

And the exercise that began in January, has already finalized a tentative list of 98 candidates from these seats, said these people. SP general secretary Ram Gopal.

Yadav has already sent this candidate list, prepared after consultation with the party organisation, to its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is SP's state unit chief, for final approval. The candidates for the remaining seat s, among the 175 assembly constituencies, are slated to be decided soon, SP sources indicated. This step by incumbent Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh comes in the backdrop of rising political noises from its opponents — BSP and BJP — since the conclusion of Bihar elections.

Sources in BSP, in this context, claim that a 'vidhansabha prabhari' (assembly constituency in-charge), an euphemism for potential candidates, for each assembly segment is already in place. SP's move to finalise at least half its contestants much in advance is an attempt to provide its potential candidates enough time to match the lead time available to its principle rival BSP candidate.

As for the remaining half the seats, the SP leadership doesn't want to unsettle the party's incumbent MLAs and has left their candidate selection for a later date closer to the announcement of polls, tentatively at the end of this year. BJP, which is all set to make 2017 UP assembly elections a triangular contest, however, seems to have fallen behind as it doesn't have a full-time state unit party chief. Incumbent Laxmikan Bajpai's term has got over but he is still continuing as BJP national president Amit Shah is yet to take a call on his replacement.

src: ET

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