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Akhilesh won from both Firozabad and Kannauj in the recent Lok Sabha elections. He has retained the Kannauj seat. The Congress had fielded Babbar from neighbouring Fatehpur Sikri, where he lost to BSP's Seema Upadhyay by a margin of around 10,000 votes.
The Congress believes that Babbar's election was sabotaged by SP. The party now wants to pay back the SP by fielding Babbar from Firozabad by exploiting the general unhappiness over Akhilesh vacating the seat. State Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said they had asked Babbar to contest the seat, because “after an evaluation of the constituency, he emerged as a strong candidate.”
The party is also in the process of finalising the candidates for the 13 Assembly seats where by-elections are going to be held. While some of the names have already been finalised, the party is finding it difficult to choose a candidate for Lucknow (West), which has too many claimants. It was vacated by Lalji Tandon after his election to the Lower House.
An AICC observer is likely to visit the constituency to collect the feedback on the probable candidates, said Joshi. The party has shortlisted 10 probables from 63 who had applied for the ticket. They include Neeraj Bora, who contested the last Assembly election on a BSP ticket, advocate Ashok Nigam and party spokespersons Ramesh Srivastava and Subodh Srivastava.
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