Samajwadi Party looks for Yadav candidate

New Delhi: The Samajwadi Party has made up its mind to nominate a candidate from the Yadav community during the upcoming Lok Sabha by-election to the Ferozabad seat.

The decision to field a Yadav candidate was taken after reports that its estranged ally in the state, the Congress party, has zeroed in on film star-turned-politician Raj Babbar as its candidate for the contest, likely to play out in October.

Babbar, who served three terms as a federal lawmaker, left the Samajwadi Party to join the Congress party ahead of the recently held Lok Sabha elections due to deep differences with the flamboyant Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh.

Babbar, however, lost the Fatehpur Sikri seat to his Bahujan Samaj Party rival Seema Upadhyay by a narrow margin.

The Ferozabad seat was vacated by the Samajwadi Party state unit chief Akhilesh Yadav, son of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, after he won from both the Ferozabad and Kannauj constituencies.

He opted to retain the Kannauj seat since it returned him with a huge margin of nearly 111,500 votes.

The decision to look for a suitable Yadav candidate by the Samajwadi Party to replace Akhilesh has put paid to the hopes of former federal minister Ram Vilas Pawan of making it to the Lok Sabha.

Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, along with the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad Yadav had entered into a pre-poll alliance.

While Paswan failed to retain his Hajipur seat from Bihar, his party drew up a blank. Initial reports had suggested that Mulayam had agreed to come to the aid of the hapless Paswan at Lalu's behest.

Ferozabad is set to go to polls along with by-elections for 12 assembly seats also lying vacant.

The by-elections are being seen as a full dress rehearsal for the 2012 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.