Facing the possibility of its Lucknow candidate’s nomination getting rejected due to technical issues, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has readied a substitute candidate who can contest in the Lok Sabha seat where the BJP’s Rajnath Singh is in the fray.

The party’s original pick, Ravidas Mehrotra, filed his papers for the Lucknow seat Friday but polling officers pointed out some issues during the procesSP chief Akhilesh Yadav wrote to the Lucknow Returning Officer: “For the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency, the SP had made Ravidas Mehrotra as the party’s official candidate. He was issued Form A and B on April 30, 2024. But now, the SP has decided to make Ashutosh Verma its substitute candidate and has issued him Form A and B. I request you to consider Ashutosh Verma as the party’s substitute candidate for Ravidas Mehrotra and to issue him the Cycle symbol of the party.”

SP spokesperson Rajendra Choudhary explained: “If Mehrotra’s papers are rejected, Ashutosh Verma will contest the elections for the SP on the seat. If not, Mehrotra will contest.”s.