The Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded Tej Pratap Singh Yadav for the parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh, putting an end to rumours that its chief, Akhilesh Yadav, would contest from Kannauj.

Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and his spouse Dimple previously held the seat.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son-in-law is Tej Pratap, a former MP from Mainpuri and Akhilesh Yadav’s nephew. The former Mainpuri MP has tied the knot with Raj Laxmi Yadav, Lalu’s daughter.

Ranveer Singh, the brother of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, is the grandfather of Tej Pratap. From 2014 to 2019, he was the MP for Mainpuri.

In addition to Tej Pratap, the Yadav family is running for the Lok Sabha seats in Mainpuri, Azamgarh, Badaun, and Ferozabad.

In opposition to Neeraj Shekhar of the BJP, the Party has put up Sanatan Pandey of Ballia.

Pandey had previously run from this location in 2019 on the SP ticket, but Virendra Singh Mast of the BJP defeated him.

Son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, Neeraj Shekhar served as a member of parliament for the state of Rajasthan from 2007 to 2014, representing SP from Ballia, the seat his father had previously held.

Shekhar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 but lost the polls to his BJP opponent. After the SP decided not to field him in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he left the party and joined the BJP, which promoted him to the Upper House of Parliament.

On June 1, elections will be held in the Ballia Lok Sabha constituency.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 62 of the 80 seats in the 2019 general elections. It also added two seats that its ally Apna Dal (S) won. Ten seats were won by Mayawati’s BSP and five by Akhilesh Yadav’s SP. In contrast, the Congress party managed to secure a mere one seat.

Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav on Monday lashed out PM Modi accsuing him of not having respect for the constitution.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal is elected unopposed from Gujarat’s Surat Lok Sabha constituency after all other contenders withdrew their candidature.

Gujrat BJP chief CR Paatil took to hi social media account X, formerly Twitter, and congratulated Dalal for being elected unopposed.

This latest developmnet comes after the cancellation of two Congress candidates’ nominations on Sunday and the withdrawal of eight more on Monday.

The Congress candidate for the Surat Lok Sabha constituency, Nilesh Kumbhani, had his nomination form canceled since he was unable to produce even one of his three proposers before the election commissioner.

The differences in three proposers’ signatures on Kumbhani’s nomination form had drawn scrutiny from the BJP.

The Congress’s replacement candidate from Surat, Suresh Padsala, had his nomination form nullified as well, which eliminated the party from the race in the city.

Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi issued an order stating that the four nomination forms that Kumbhani and Padsala had presented were refused because there were initially found differences in the proposers’ signatures, making them seem fake.

Pardhi’s order also mentioned that the proposers acknowledged having signed the forms themselves in their affidavits. It should be noted that Kumbhani’s three proposers were related to him.

Nilesh Kumbhani was given a day by the Returning Officer to submit his response following the proposers’ claim. The congressional candidate arrived at the polling place with his representative; however, none of his three proposers showed up.

According to the order, the Congress candidate’s attorney had requested that the camera tape be checked, and even their presence was not discovered.

Meanwhile, the Congress said that everyone was afraid of the government’s threat and accused the ruling BJP of being involved in dirty play.

Congress leader and activist Babu Mangukiya said that Kumbhani’s three proposers had been abducted, and he suggested that the Returning Officer look into this matter rather than the validity of the signed form.

According to Mangukiya, it was improper to cancel the form without first telechecking the signatures and determining whether or not the proposers’ signatures were accurate.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is a diabetic patient who filed a legal action alleging that Tihar Jail staff denied him the supply of  insulin for 31 days, has taken aim at the jail administration, charging them with alse statements and lying under political pressure (from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party).

According to sources, the Aam Aadmi Party chief, who is arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in connection with an alleged Delhi liquor policy scam, wrote a letter to the superintendent of Tihar Jail after the jail set up a video conference with medical professionals from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which is run by the central government. Jail officials said that the insulin supply had not been increased following the discussion.

The doctors assured Kejriwal that there is no serious concern, and they suggested him to continue with the prescribed medicines, which will be evaluated regularly, according to jail officials.

Kejriwal, however, views the situation differently.

The Delhi CM mentioned in his letter, that he read the Tihar administration’s statement in the press. After reading the statements, he was sad. In his letter, Kejriwal said, Tihar Jail’s two claims are false. He requests insulin every day. He told the jail authority that sugar levels are high after displaying the glucometer readings to them three times a day, he added.

He continued saying  that the values for sugar levels are between 250 and 320 mg/dl, and that he demandeds insulin almost every day. Then how the jail officials are claiming that he never brought up the topic of insulin?, the AAP leader said.

Kejriwal also mentioned the data of World Health Organization (WHO) which says, the expected values for normal fasting blood glucose concentration are between 70 and 100 mg/dL (or milligrams per decilitre).

AIIMS doctors never said there is nothing to worry about. They said they will respond after looking at the (medical) data and (patient) history, added the chief minister.

He is believed to have told the jail chief, the Tihar administration is lying under political pressure,in an effort to increase hostilities with the Centre, which he has accused of having a political vendetta, in the run-up to the May 25 Lok Sabha election in the national capital.