After confusion over ticket distribution in Moradabad and Rampur, the Samajwadi Party (SP), a major partner in the INDIA bloc, changed three candidates on the Meerut Lok Sabha seat triggering infighting in the party.
The infighting over the ticket for the Meerut seat went on till late in the evening and came to an end on Thursday after Sunita Verma’s name was finalised for the seat. She has been declared the party’s official candidate for the seat after the cancellation of the ticket of MLA Atul Pradhan.
Sunita Verma is pitted against BJP’s Arun Govil from this seat. She is the third candidate announced by the SP for the Meerut seat after Atul Pradhan and Bhanu Pratap.
Earlier, Atul Pradhan filed a nomination on behalf of the SP on Wednesday. Though he threatened to resign as SP MLA after being denied a ticket even after an official announcement, on Thursday he decided to go by the decision of the party.
Sunita Verma filed her nomination papers on Thursday along with Forms A and B given by the party.
Sunita Verma, who started her political career as a district panchayat member about one-and-a-half decades ago, became the first Dalit mayor in the history of the Municipal Corporation in 2017. The mayor’s seat was snatched from the BJP which was in power in the state.
Similar is the situation in Rampur and Moradabad seats where the SP had to field candidates imported from other parties. In Moradabad, the SP fielded Ruchiveera in place of sitting MP ST Hasan even after giving him an official letter. On the Rampur seat, a Muslim cleric from Delhi was air-dropped to the chagrin of the supporters of jailed SP leader Azam Khan.
While polling in Moradabad and Rampur is scheduled to be held in the first phase on April 19, Meerut will go to polls in the second phase.
Meanwhile, RLD President Jayant Choudhary took a dig at the frequent changes in ticket distribution without naming the party. On a social media post on Thursday, Jayant said, “In the Opposition, only the lucky ones get a ticket for the Lok Sabha polls, that too, for a few hours! And the fate of those whose tickets were not cut…”