He will be running against two traditional rivals — Ratna Singh of Congress and Akshay Pratap Singh of Samajwadi Party.

Ratna is the daughter of veteran Congress leader Dinesh Singh of erstwhile Kala Kankar state and Akshay is the close aid of Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, representative of Beti, in Kunda.

Announcing his candidature from Pratapgarh, the national president of Apna Dal, Sonelal Patel, said Atiq had sent him a message expressing his willingness to return to Apna Dal. “He has accepted the party membership and has joined the party with his supporters,” said Patel.

Atiq is currently lodged in Lalitpur jail. “Atiq is not a mafia. He is my brother and he has every right to come home. The party welcomes him. He was with us in 2002 and left due to some reason,” said Patel.

The party will decide other candidates of Atiq’s choice in the second phase, he added.

The Apna Dal, mainly focusing on Patel community, has decided to contest Lok Sabha elections on 300 seats across the country and on 60 seats in Uttar Pradesh, said Patel.

The party has decided to field Pradeep Srivastava from Phoolpur, keeping in mind the caste equations prevailing in the area. “Fielding Atiq from Phoolpur would mean giving direct edge to the BSP, as the seat is dominated by Schedule Castes and other backward castes,” he said. Ostensibly, Atiq wants to damage the BSP and the Congress, the parties which had spurned him once.

Atiq had defied the SP whip during the Presidential elections in 2007. He earned the Congress ire after he again shifted loyalty and went with the BSP in the 2008 trust vote against the UPA government.