UP Polls 2017: Akhilesh includes Shivpal in first SP list

Luckow : It was unusual to see, when UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav included estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav’s name in his first list of 191 Samajwadi Party candidates for up coming UP polls. However, the UP has not given tickets to many associates of his father Mulayam Singh. 

According to reports, the Samajwadi Party will contest 300 of UP's 403 seats, with the balance being allotted to the Congress.

Akhilesh Yadav's list corrects an earlier list of candidates that his father Mulayam Singh Yadav had released last month, which left out several of the chief minister's key aides. Those associates like Atul Pradhan and Arvind Singh Gope are being fielded by the party now.

Senior minister and Muslim face of the party Azam Khan, who played mediator between father and son in their bitter power struggle in the last few weeks, will contest again from his constituency Rampur. His son Abdullah Azam makes his debut as a Samajwadi Party candidate from Swaar. 

But Shivpal Yadav's son Aditya, Raghuraj Shakhya and Sukh Devi Verma have not been given included in the list.