BAREILLY/ RAMPUR: Putting all speculations to rest, the Samajwadi Party on Thursday gave a ticket to former five-time MLA Bhagwat Saran Gangwar from Bareilly parliamentary constituency, while the party fielded Nasir Qureshi, who joined the SP nearly a year ago, from the neighbouring Moradabad constituency.Bhagwat, a five-time MLA from Nawabganj, had lost the UP assembly elections in 2017 to BJP’s Kesar Singh. He had also served as the state minister twice in the past. Bhagwat told TOI, “The development of Bareilly has stopped in the last few years, while the adjoining districts like Rampur and Moradabad have reported better growth. Once we form a government, we will start development of Bareilly. In Bareilly, over 11 lakh voters are supporting the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, and I will win with a huge margin.”With SP fielding Bhagwat, it will create a dent in the vote bank of BJP’s sitting MP Santosh Gangwar, who enjoys support of nearly 2 lakh Kurmi voters. Santosh Gangwar, Union minister of state for labour and employment, has been seven-time MP from Bareilly. Former MP Pravin Singh Aron is fighting polls on a Congress ticket from here. In 2009, Aron had defeated Santosh Gangwar with a margin 9,338 votes, while Bhagwat who had debuted in the Lok Sabha polls in 2009 came third. However, Aron lost to Santosh, who secured 5.18 lakh votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.Nasir Qureshi, a meat exporter, had unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls in 2012 and 2017 from Moradabad rural on a BSP ticket and from Kanth assembly constituency in Moradabad, respectively. He quit BSP and joined SP nearly a year ago.

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