India News | Won't Contest LS Polls: SP's Moradabad MP Hasan
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Samajwadi Party's Moradabad MP S T Hasan, who filed his nomination from the seat despite being denied the ticket by the party, on Thursday said he will not contest the Lok Sabha polls.
Moradabad (UP), Mar 28 (PTI) Samajwadi Party's Moradabad MP S T Hasan, who filed his nomination from the seat despite being denied the ticket by the party, on Thursday said he will not contest the Lok Sabha polls.
However, Hasan has not officially withdrawn his nomination papers filed on Tuesday. The last date for withdrawal of nomination is March 30.
Confusion prevailed for several hours Wednesday after two candidates each in Rampur and Moradabad parliamentary constituencies claimed to be the SP's official nominees. SP leaders Muhibullah Nadvi and Asim Raja filed their nominations from Rampur while party leaders Ruchi Veera and Hasan from Moradabad.
The party later clarified that Muhibullah Nadvi from Rampur and Ruchi Veera from Moradabad are its authorised candidates.
Raja is considered close to jailed SP leader Azam Khan.
On Thursday, the election office rejected candidature of Asim Raja as SP's nominee from Rampur seat on technical grounds.
When asked if he would campaign for SP candidate Ruchi Veera, Hasan told PTI, "I will neither contest the Lok Sabha polls nor campaign in Moradabad."
However, the Moradabad MP said he will campaign in the polls wherever SP chief Akhilesh Yadav asks him.
"In Rampur, as the party could not announce a candidate suggested by Azam Khan, so Ruchi Veera has been made the candidate from Moradabad at the behest of Khan," he claimed.
Earlier, speaking to reporters here, Hasan said Akhliesh Yadav might have some compulsion due to which he cancelled his candidature.
"Till the last moment, the SP chief wanted me to contest the elections from Moradabad. But some of the party leaders did not allow the papers, which Akhilesh Yadav had sent for me from Lucknow to file nomination again, reach me. The papers did not reach me till 3 pm (on Wednesday)," he said.
In 2014 general elections, Hasan contested from Moradabad as SP candidate and was defeated by Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh of BJP. However, in 2019, the SP leader won the Moradabad seat by defeating BJP's Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh by 97,878 votes.
Hasan has also served as mayor of Moradabad from 2006 to 2012.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)