UP MLC Polls: SP Fields Gorakhpur Tragedy Accused Dr Kafeel Khan From Deoria-Khushinagar Seat

Khan was among the accused in the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Hospital, Gorakhpur case where over 60 children died due to disruption in the oxygen supply in August 2017.

Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded famous Gorakhpur pediatrician Dr. Kafeel Khan from the Deoria-Kushinagar legislative council constituency for the upcoming MLC elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Khan was among the accused in the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Hospital, Gorakhpur case where over 60 children died due to disruption in the oxygen supply in August 2017. In November last year, the Uttar Pradesh government terminated the services of Dr Khan.

SP national secretary and spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary has confirmed that Khan will be the party candidate.

Earlier this week, Kafeel Khan met SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and then tweeted a picture of them together.

"Met honourable former chief minister shri @yadavakhilesh sir and presented him a copy of #TheGorakhpurHospitalTragedy," he tweeted.

Earlier, Dr Khan was arrested for making speeches at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) meeting.

Additionally, SP has also announced the name of candidates from Gonda, Ballia, Ghazipur, Sitapur for MLC elections. 

The MLC elections are scheduled to take place on April 9 for as many as 36 seats of the UP Legislative Council and the counting of votes will take place on April 12. 

Samajwadi Party has fielded 12 Yadav candidates on 16 seats for the Vidhan Parishad, or Legislative Council to gain some more grounds in the state after facing a defeat from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assembly Elections.

The SP has placed its bet on youngsters with almost 50 per cent candidates being first-timers, news agency IANS reported.

Many of the SP candidates filed their nomination papers on Wednesday.

The SP list released on Wednesday includes the names of Anurag Verma (Kheri), Manoj Kumar (Jaunpur), Umesh Kumar (Varanasi), Amar Yadav (Bahraich), Vijay Bahadur Yadav (Pratapgarh) and Dileep Singh Yadav (Agra-Firozabad).

Sitting MLC Sunil Singh Sajan has also been nominated as candidate from Lucknow-Unnao seat.

Names of Rajesh Yadav (Barabanki), Amit Yadav (Pilibhit-Shahjahanpur), Rajnesh Yadav (Gorakhpur-Maharajganj), Shyam Sunder Singh (Jhansi-Jalaun-Lalitpur), Santosh Yadav (Basti-Siddharthnagar), Virendra Shanker Singh (Rae Bareli), Heera Lal Yadav (Faizabad), Rajesh Kumar Yadav alias Guddu (Azamgarh-Mau) and Maqsoor Ahmed (Rampur-Bareilly) also figure in the list.

(With inputs from IANS.)