Keeping its door open for turncoats, Congress on Saturday welcomed Bahujan Samaj Party’s former leader RK Chaudhary into its fold.
Chaudhary is likely to replace Ramashankar Bhargava, the Congress candidate from Mohanlalganj (Reserved) parliamentary constituency.
A former Member of Parliament from Mishrikh in Sitapur, Bhargava is also a turncoat. He had recently joined the Congress after resigning from Samajwadi Party.
On the other hand, Chaudhary had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha poll on BSP ticket from Mohanlalganj but was defeated by Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Kaushal Kishore by nearly 1.45 lakh votes. While Chaudhary polled 3.10 lakh votes, Kaushal Kishore received 4.55 lakh votes in the 2014 election.
Now, with Kaushal Kishore once again being fielded by the BJP from Mohanlalganj, the electoral fight for the seat is bound to become triangular with the Congress and SP-BSP-RLD alliance candidates vying for the seat.
Though Chaudhary’s name has not officially been announced as candidate so far, sources in the UP Congress said that finding Chaudhary and his supporters active in the constituency, a majority of the local party leaders asked the party brass to replace Bhargava with him.
The sources claimed that some more leaders were on their way to join the Congress and hence the party had delayed the announcement of candidates for key constituencies like Varanasi, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Lucknow etc.
The sources said that another senior BSP leader, Rakesh Dhar Tripathi, was likely to join Congress and was certain to be fielded from Allahabad.
Similarly, Shatrughan Sinha’s wife Poonam was also tipped to be the joint candidate of SP-BSP-RLD alliance and Congress to take on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow.
The sources in Congress claimed that beside RK Chaudhary, sitting BJP MP from Barabanki, Priyanka Rawat, was also in touch with senior party leaders and was interested in fighting from Mohanlalganj parliamentary constituency.
It is now to be seen whether the Congress will field Chaudhary or wait further and induct Rawat to push her in the fray from Mohanlalganj.
