Battle for UP: These turncoats left out in the cold-Andhravilas

Battle for UP: These turncoats left out in the cold

Lucknow, Jan 19 - For weeks, Congress leader Imran Masood persuaded the party leadership to forge an alliance with Samajwadi Party 'which was better positioned to fight the BJP in Uttar Pradesh'.

Finally, he quit the Congress and joined the SP. A week later, he is again looking for a party that will give him a ticket because SP has 'ditched' him.

His brother Masood Akhtar, a Congress MLA, quit his party and he has also been ignored by SP.

"We had been told that they will take care of us. Akhilesh had called us twice and assured us of a party ticket. We were waiting at the SP office when we learnt that Behat and Saharanpur Dehat's candidates had been announced," said Masood Akhtar.

The brothers are now frantically looking of a party symbol to contest polls.

Another turncoat who has been left out in the cold is former Bahujan Samaj Party MP, Qadir Rana, who expected a ticket from Muzaffarnagar after joining the SP last year.

His name does not figure in the SP list and Rana has nowhere to go.

This will be the first time in three decades that Qadir Rana will not be contesting elections.

"I don't want to comment on the matter," he said.

Another former MLA Guddu Pandit, a.k.a Bhagwan Sharma, has also not been given a ticket even though he recently joined SP in Delhi. He is a two-term MLA from Dibai.

His brother, Mukesh Sharma, also a former MLA, did not find a slot in the RLD-SP list.

Former BSP MLA Haji Yaqub Qureshi who joined hands with Akhilesh also failed to get a ticket.

--IANS

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(IANS)

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