Prominent Dalit face Chandrashekhar Azad will contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections from Gorakhpur Sadar seat, his Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) announced on Thursday. BJP has fielded UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Sadar seat.
The party has declared Chandrashekhar Azad as the candidate from Gorakhpur Sadar (322) seat, carrying forward the ideology of Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram Saheb for ‘Bahujan Hitay-Bahujan Sukhay’.
Mohammad Aaqib, member of the National Core Committee of ASP (K), confirmed the development. He said that the registered name of the party is Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram). The 35-year-old lawyer-turned-activist co-founded the Dalit rights organization Bhim Army and is its national president.
He launched ASP(K) in March 2020 and is the party president. During the sixth phase of elections in UP, polling is to be held in Gorakhpur Sadar on March 3. The results will be declared on March 10.
Azad was till recently in talks for an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party to contest the elections, but was offered only two seats by it.
Feeling thus small, Azad had said on Tuesday that his party would no longer approach the SP for an alliance as it was a matter of self-respect, but said he was ready to find new allies for the polls. The flamboyant leader has often said that his fight is against the ideology of the BJP and the RSS.