BJP's sitting MP Shyama Charan Gupta from Prayagraj resigned and joined Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party. Gupta will be contesting the general elections as an SP candidate from the Banda parliamentary constituency.
Samajwadi Party's release issued in Lucknow said that Shyama Charan Gupta will be its candidate from Banda Lok Sabha seat.
According to SP leaders, Gupta visited the party office in Lucknow later in the day and met Yadav, after which he was allotted the ticket.
It is said that Gupta was unhappy with the Bharatiya Janata Party over reports that he may be denied a ticket from the Prayagraj constituency, which he won in 2014.
The party had Friday declared five candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, which included sitting MP Tabassum Hasan from Kairana and Surendra Kumar alias Munni Sharma from Ghaziabad seat.
The SP has so far announced the names of 17 candidates of its quota of 37 seats following its alliance with the BSP.
Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the SP will contest in 37 and the BSP in 38, leaving three for the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
The alliance has not fielded any candidate in Rae Bareli and Amethi from where Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will contest respectively.
(PTI)
