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SP fields Muzzafar Ali against Vajpayee

Muzzafar Ali, who directed Gaman and Umrao Jaan, will be the Samajwadi Party candidate against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is seeking re-election to the Lok Sabha from the prestigious Lucknow constituency.

Ali was among the eight candidates whose names were announced by Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh in the presence of party chief and Union Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in Lucknow on Wednesday.

With this announcement, the party has nominated candidates for 40 of the 85 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

The candidates for the other seven seats are Mukhtar Anis (Sitapur), Ravi Prakash Verma (Lakhimpur Kheri), Abhaya Pratap Singh (Pratapgarh), Toofani Saroj (Saidpur), Pooran Chand (Hathras), Phoolan Devi (Mirzapur-Bhadohi) and Rizwan Zahir Khan (Balrampur).

Rizwan Zahir Khan joined the Samajwadi Party today after resigning from the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Along with Khan, who represented Tulsipur constituency (Gonda district) in the assembly, former BSP state unit president Bhagwat Pal also joined the Samajwadi Party.

Pal, a one-time confidant of Bahujan Samaj supremo Kanshi Ram, had developed differences with former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati which led to his expulsion from the party. He was then forced to vacate his official residence.

Former BJP legislator and UP Lodhi Rajpur Sansthan general secretary Sunder Lal were among those who gained entry into the Samajwadi Party today.

UNI

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