Bareilly: The SP-BSP-RLD combine leadership on Tuesday announced the candidature of BSP’s Ruchi Veera from Aonla Lok Sabha seat. A new face in this constituency, Veera is no stranger to politics. A former MLA from Bijnor, she had contested the 2014 bypoll in Bijnor as an SP nominee and won to become a first-time MLA.Sunil Kumar Chittor, sector in charge of Bareilly, Agra and Aligarh divisions of BSP, said, "Ruchi Veera will be SP-BSP-RLD alliance candidate from Aonla. She will ensure victory in Aonla."At present the Anola Lok Sabha seat is represented by Dharmendra Kashyap of BJP. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he had won after securing 4.09 lakh votes while BSP's candidate, Sunita Shakya, secured third position with 1.90 lakh votes. Interestingly, no BSP candidate has won Aonla parliamentary seat till date.Aonla has nearly 70,000 voters from the Vaish community. Veera belongs to the community.Navneet Agarwal, BSP's Bareilly district coordinator of Vaish community, said, "We are privileged that the party has given the ticket to a member of the Vaish community. We will appeal to community members to vote for her to ensure her victory."Hemendra Gautam, Badaun district president, BSP, said, "Ruchi is a strong leader and has held important posts in the past. She is a new face in Aonla but a known name in politics." Two assembly segments of Badaun — Dataganj and Shekhupur — are part of Aonla parliamentary seat.Veera was elected chairperson of the district panchayat board in 2005 with the support of RLD. However, she fought the UP assembly polls in 2012 on a SP ticket but lost. She again contested the bypoll in 2014 after the seat was vacated by BJP's Bhartendra Singh. Veera became MLA for the first time from Bijnor after she won the bypoll. She again fought the UP assembly polls from Bijnor in 2017 but lost to BJP candidate.According to sources, Veera had sought a ticket from SP from Bijnor parliamentary seat. However, after the SP-BSP-RLD alliance was forged, Bijnor seat went to BSP. She joined BSP in January and was made BSP in-charge of Bijnor parliamentary seat. Sources claimed that since a section of party workers were against her, she was removed from the post of in charge of Bijnor seat.Sources added that BSP decided to field her from Aonla to avoid infighting in Bijnor unit.Accepting the “challenge” of contesting from Anola, Veera said, “I have accepted challenge and will win the poll from Anola.”The candidate comes from a family of politicians. Her husband, Udayan Veera, is former chairperson of Bijnor district panchayat board. Her father-in-law, Satya Veer, is a former state minister and the family runs few educational institutions in Bijnor.(With inputs from Harveer Dabas in Bijnor)

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