Jat SP leader refuses to contest polls from riot-hit Baghpat

MUZAFFARNAGAR: Accusing the Samajwadi Party government of failing to control the situation in the recent communal clashes, a jat leader, who was fielded by the ruling party as its candidate from Baghpat has refused to contest the Lok Sabha polls under the party banner.

Sompal Shastri, nominated by the party as its Lok Sabha election candidate from Baghpat constituency, yesterday turned down the decision.

In a letter written to party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shastri said that he was not in a position to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Baghpat after the violence.

The incidents of communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Baghpat are unfortunate, he said.

Sompal has won the Lok Sabha poll from Baghpat on the BJP ticket in 1998,defeating Rashtriya Lok Dal's chief Ajit Singh. But lost to Singh in 1999.

Meanwhile, another Jat leader of the party and former MLA Ratenpal Panwar yesterday resigned from SP, expressing displeasure over the handling of the violence by the state government.

In a letter written to the party, he has said that he resigned as the district administration failed to control communal violence in which several people were killed.

The Samajwadi Party has left the ideology of Choudhary Charan Singh, Panwar said.