Lucknow: In a setback to the Congress, the candidature of Ummed Singh Nishad, its candidate from Ambedkar Nagar parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, was cancelled after the district administration found discrepancies in his nomination papers during scrutiny. A miffed Nishad then left the collectorate with his supporters without speaking to reporters.
Nishad’s nomination was cancelled after certain columns in the form were found blank.
The Ambedkar Nagar constituency goes to polls in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 12. Nishad, the husband of former MP Phoolan Devi, was scheduled to contest for the first time after the death of his wife in 2001.
Phoolan Devi, famously known as the ‘Bandit Queen of Chambal’, entered politics and became an MP from Mirzapur constituency in 1996. Under the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav, she contested elections on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket. When Yadav was the UP chief minister, all cases against Phoolan Devi were rolled back and she was released from prison. In 1999, she was re-elected before being assassinated two years later.
The other candidates in fray from Ambedkar Nagar are Ritesh Pandey, contesting on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket and Mukut Bihari of the BJP, who is a minister in Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet.
Ritesh Pandey, former MLA from Jalalpur, was embroiled in controversy last year after his brother, Ashish Pandey, was held for brandishing a gun outside a five-star hotel in Delhi. Ritesh Pandey owns liquor and real estate businesses, sugar and rice mills, among others.
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