Noida/Ghaziabad: Former SP leader Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) (PSP) on Tuesday came out with its list of candidates for 31 constituencies across Uttar Pradesh, including Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad.The candidate for G B Nagar is Naved Pathan, possibly the only Muslim candidate from the Lok Sabha constituency. The candidate for Ghaziabad is Sevaram Kasana, a Gujjar.A resident of Bulandshahr’s Bugrasi area, 42-year-old Pathan, who rose in social circles after joining the farmers’ outfit, Bharatiya Kisan Union-Tikait, and is also a debutant in politics, claimed he has support of Muslims, Yadavs and Gujjars. Stating that Muslims were being neglected by the new SP-BSP combine, Pathan told TOI that even former minister Shahid Manzoor was denied a ticket this time. He also compared himself with the once-underdog Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had swept the Delhi assembly polls.Kasana, on the other hand, said their main opponent is the BJP. “We have to keep the BJP at bay this Lok Sabha election,” said Kasana, who is from Ghaziabad’s Bhowpura area and comes from a farming background. Banking on minority votes, Kasna said, “Under the BJP rule, both at the Centre and the state, minorities live in fear and based on Shivpal Yadav’s standing in their eyes when he was in SP, they will vote for us.”

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