Tej Bahadur Yadav SP Varanasi candidate: The Samajwadi Party has changed its candidate from Varanasi. The party which had fielded Shalini Yadav to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now named former Border Security Force jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav as the joint candidate of SP-BSP alliance.
Tej Bahadur Yadav was dismissed from the BSF after he released a video in 2017 complaining about the quality of food served to soldiers while on duty at the borders.
Samajwadi Party’s decision to change its Varanasi candidate has come days after the Congress ended suspense over party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s candidature from the temple town.
The Congress had last week made it clear that Priyanka Gandhi won’t contest against PM Modi, who is seeking a second term from Varanasi. Congress has fielded Ajay Rai from Varanasi. He had contested in 2014 too but was placed third behind Narendra Modi and Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal.
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Congress leader Sam Pitroda had said that it was Priyanka’s own decision not to contest election from Varanasi as she wanted to focus more on strengthening the party cadre in Uttar Pradesh.
Pitroda said Congress president Rahul Gandhi had left the final decision on Priyanka. “She (Priyanka) decided that she has several responsibilities. She decided that rather than concentrating on one seat, she should focus on the job she has at hand,” Pitroda told reporters.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that it was disappointing that Congress decided against fielding Priyanka against PM Modi. “Obviously, she quietly chickened out of the contest. I am deeply disappointed with the Congress party’s decision of not fielding Priyanka from Varanasi,” Jaitley said in his Facebook post.
“The myths of Priyanka Gandhi stand eroded. India’s conventional wisdom has been ‘band muthi lakh ki, khul gyi to khhaak ki’. The myth of ‘Priyanka will make a difference’ was worth a lakh,” Jaitley added.