Fight for Ferozabad by-election hots up

New Delhi: The contest for the prestigious Ferozabad Lok Sabha by-election is set to hot up with the announcement that the Congress general-secretary Rahul Gandhi will visit the constituency tomorrow.

Rahul is slated to address an election rally in the constituency.

Normally, top leaders refrain from campaigning in by-elections particularly when the outcome is inconsequential. A victory or defeat at Ferozabad will have no impact whatsoever on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre.

However, the young Gandhi's decision to associate himself at Ferozabad is seen as part of his plans for Uttar Pradesh which is slated to elect its new legislative assembly in 2012. Rahul's plan is to strengthen the party and help it come to power in India's most populous state which the party last ruled in 1990.

An election for the Ferozabad seat was necessary due to the resignation of the regional Samajwadi Party's state unit president Akhilesh Yadav after his election from two constituencies in May Lok Sabha elections. Akhilesh, the son of the party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, opted to retain Kannauj seat.

High-profile candidate

While Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav has been fielded by the Samajwadi Party as its candidate, the Congress party upped the ante by naming film star and former Samajwadi Party lawmaker Raj Babbar as its candidate.

Babbar, elected twice on the Samajwadi Party ticket from Agra, lost the Fatehpur Sikri seat to his Bahujan Samaj Party rival by a narrow margin as a Congress nominee in the last Lok Sabha elections.

Ferozabad is slated to go to the polls on November 7.

A day before Rahul's planned visit to Ferozabad, former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin will hold a roadshow in the constituency. Azharuddin was elected to the Lok Sabha from the neighbouring Moradabad seat on the Congress ticket.

The erstwhile allies Congress party and Samajwadi Party fought a close contest in the Lok Sabha elections and ended up winning 21 and 23 seats respectively out of 80 Lok Sabha seats allotted to Uttar Pradesh.