Shafiqur Rahman Barq: SP's 5-Time MP To Retain Sambhal Seat (image- facebook/shafiqur rahman barq)

Among the 16 candidates announced by the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday, 93-year-old Shafiqur Rahman Barq is the oldest candidate. SP has retained sitting MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq in the Sambhal constituency.

Shafiqur Rahman was elected to the Lok Sabha at various times from Moradabad as SP candidate and Sambhal, most recently in 2019. Questions are now being raised to Akhilesh Yadav, SP chief for granting the ticket to Lok Sabha to a five-time MP. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, though BJP won with a record-breaking victory, sweeping 62 out of 80 assembly seats, the saffron party was unable to defeat the SP stalwart in Sambhal.

Perhaps, this might be the reason why Akhilesh has decided to field him for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. During the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Shafiqur Rahman was fielded against the BJP candidate Parmeshwar Lal Saini in the Sambhal constituency. He won by 1,74,826 votes.

Shafeequr Rahman, the five-time MP had spent most of his political career along with the Samajwadi party though he has joined the Bahujan Samajwadi party in between. He had won the election thrice from Moradabad and twice from Sambhal Lok Sabha seat. In 1996, 1998, and 2004, he got a land sliding victory in the elections. The SP leader also joined Asaduddin Owaisi’s party AIMIM along with his grandson Ziaur Rahman in 2017. But returned to SP in 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Shafiqur Rahman Burk often hit headlines due to his controversial statements. His remark on the Ayodhya land dispute, Gyanvapi case, Hijab ban, etc was widely discussed.

On Tuesday, January 30, the Samajwadi Party made a surprising move by declaring its candidates for 16 Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seats. The Samajwadi Party announced the list of candidates amid seat-sharing talks with Congress.