NDA’s Muslim face in UP: BJP ally fields Haidar Ali Khan

BJP’s ally in UP Apna Dal (Sonelal) on Sunday declared Haidar Ali Khan as its candidate from the Suar assembly constituency in the Rampur district. Khan was declared earlier on January 13 as the Congress candidate from the Suar assembly constituency. Khan’s father Nawab Kazim Ali Khan is still in the Congress and is to fight the assembly elections from the neighbouring Rampur seat.

Khan is the second Congress candidate to leave the party after being declared its candidate, the first one being the candidate from Bareilly Cantonment, Supriya Aron who joined the Samajwadi Party on Saturday.

National spokesperson Rajesh Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal) on Sunday told PTI, “The party has decided to field Haidar Ali Khan as its candidate from the Suar assembly seat.”

Khan took the membership of the Apna Dal (S) a few days ago in Delhi after being impressed by the party leadership. The Congress had already declared him as the party candidate from Suar, he said. Khan had figured in the first list of Congress candidates declared on January 13.

Earlier in the 2017 assembly elections, Abdullah Azam Khan, son of veteran Samajwadi Party leader and Rampur MP Azam Khan, had fought from the Suar assembly seat as an SP candidate and had won it. –(PTI)