Disappointed over the cancelation of his candidature by Samajwadi Party (SP), outgoing Moradabad MP S T Hasan has denied campaigning for the party candidate Ruchi Veera in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Hasan has labeled Veera as an outsider as she was in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for a while. He even claimed that Veera got a ticket because jailed veteran leader Azam Khan pressurised Akhilesh Yadav to do so.

Swarajya also reported earlier that Veera’s name was given to Yadav when the latter went to meet Khan in Sitapur jail. Veera is considered close to Khan and has been Bijnor MLA from 2014 to 2017.

Responding to Hasan’s claims, Veera said that there is nothing wrong in getting a ticket on Azam Khan’s insistence as he is a senior party leader.

“I don’t know anything about the discussion between Akhilesh ji and Azam sahab. All I know is that even Hasan ji got the ticket on Azam Khan’s insistence,” she was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.

On Hasan’s refusal to campaign, Veera said, “He should campaign for me because he is still in the party. I tried to reach out to him, but whoever picks up the phone doesn’t let me talk to him.”

The last day of nomination filing witnessed high-voltage drama in Moradabad as Hasan had filed nomination a day earlier. However, Veera filed nomination with party symbolm, compelling Hasan to withdraw.

Despite no support from the outgoing MP and local cadre, Veera expressed confidence on winning the election and claimed that all communities have accepted her.

Kunawar Sarvesh Singh is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Moradabad. He got the ticket despite the loss in 2019. In 2014, he had defeated SP’s Hasan and became an MP.

Irfan Saifi is the BSP candidate from here, making it a three-cornered contest. The voting is scheduled for 19 April in first phase of elections and the counting will be done on 4 June.