SAD to contest UP assembly polls, announces list of 21 candidates

PATIALA : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) which is opposing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) being outsider in Punjab has now decided to contest assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The SAD has announced the first list of SAD candidates. Another list may be issued soon, party sources said.
The move may create bitterness between the SAD and BJP — the alliance partners in Punjab and at the Centre — as it did during the 2014 Haryana assembly elections where the Akalis allied with the Om Prakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). Declaring candidates and the office-bearers for UP, Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra said, “The SAD will seek an alliance with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh on the Punjab pattern. However, if it does not fructify, the party will contest polls alone as it has the right to expand its base in UP, which has 1.5 crore Punjabis.” Former UP chief secretary Rai Singh will be the party’s president in the poll-bound state, while his wife Raj Rai Singh, who was finance minister in BJP-BSP government, will be the party’s candidate from Pilibhit. The SAD has also roped in Ram Hirde, president of Ravi Dass Sabha in UP.The Akalis have chosen to field candidates from constituencies having considerable Sikh and Punjabi population, including Pilibhit, Ghaziabad, Gola, Bilaspur (Rampur) and Rae Bareli.