LUCKNOW: Urusha, the daughter of famous Urdu poet Munawwar Rana known for his pointed attacks on UP CM Yogi Adityanath and the ruling BJP government, was among the six candidates announced by the Congress in its fifth list released here on Monday.
While Munawwar Rana’s association with the Congress is quite old, Urusha formally joined the Congress in October and was nominated as vice-president of the UP Mahila Congress soon after. Urusha, who has been fielded from the Purva seat of Unnao district, expressed happiness over the opportunity given.
The other interesting name in the list was that of Gayatri Tiwari, mother of Khushi Dubey, who is the widow of slain criminal Amar Dubey named in the Bikru village incident. To recall, during a raid on the night of July 2, 2020 in Bikru village, gangster Vikas Dubey and his aides gunned down eight policemen including a deputy SP rank officer.
However, there may be a catch with the candidature of Gayatri, who has been fielded from the Kalyanpur seat. According to reports, Gayatri’s name is missing from the voters’ list of the area. Gayatri had recently met Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in New Delhi for the second time amid representatives from different political parties rallying behind her to field her as a face of BJP’s failure to safeguard the interests of the Brahmin community.
The other names in the Congress list are of old timers — Shahana Siddique from Lucknow West, Ajay Srivastava alias Ajju from Lucknow north and Pankaj Tewari from Lucknow east. While Shahana had been associated with the Congress organisation for over a decade, Ajay Srivastava was the Lucknow city president of north zone. Likewise, Pankaj Tewari has been a part of Congress media team for over six years now.
The party has also given ticket to Vinay Vikram Singh from Sultanpur’s Lambhua seat which goes to poll in the fifth phase. Singh started his political career with Youth Congress and is presently serving as the member of UP Congress committee.
In all, the Congress has announced the names of 322 candidates for the state assembly elections.
