Sambhal: Samajwadi Party leader and four-time MP Shafeeque-ur-Rahman Barq has decided to fielding his grandson Ziaur Rehman against sitting SP MLA Iqbal Mehmood in Sambhal constituency.Barq, who belongs to the Shivpal-Mulayam camp, has decided that he will field his grandson even if the latter has to fight as an independent candidate. Cabinet minister and four-term MLA Mehmood is considered close to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his ticket had also been announced from Sambhal City constituency. Hundreds of supporters of Barq had gathered at the Atique Banquet Hall to discuss the issue on Sunday afternoon.“After meeting my supporters, we have decided that my grandson will contest the assembly election from Sambhal against Mehmood. I had told Mulayam Singh and CM Akhilesh several times that we will contest only from Sambhal, not Bilari,” said Barq, who has been at loggerheads with Mehmood after losing the Lok Sabha election in 2014.“Everyone knows I lost the election to the BJP candidate because of the sitting SP MLA. Now people here are asking us to represent them because no development work has been done here by the sitting MLA,” Barq alleged.“We have rejected the party proposal for Ziaur Rehman to contest from Bilari because Sambhal is our karmabhumi. Our ancestors devoted their lives for the uplift of the people here,” Barq told his supporters at the meeting.“Akhilesh has once again trusted me and allowed me to contest from Sambhal. Barq has changed parties and gone to the BSP and returned just for his own interests. Putting up a candidate against me means allowing the BJP to win,” Mehmood told TOI.In the 2012 assembly elections, Mehmood defeated BJP candidate Rajesh Singhal with a margin of 30,000 votes.

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