Samajwadi Party's Kanpur Cantt. candidate for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh polls Atiq Ahmad said the party had sent him from Allahabad to contest elections from the seat to "uproot communal forces like the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)".
"The main rival of the Samajwadi Party is the BJP, and I have come here to uproot these forces," he said yesterday at a gathering at the Babupurva Idgah here.
The mafia don-turned-politician, Ahmed, was recently booked for allegedly assaulting the staff of an educational institute on the outskirts Allahabad.
He claimed apart from campaigning in Kanpur Cantt, he will work in other assembly constituencies to strengthen the Samajwadi Party.
Attacking the Congress and the BSP, Ahmad said, "In its 60-years in power the Congress has given people lollipops while the BSP has digressed from the ideology of the party's founder Kashiram."
The SP leader arrived in the city with a large cavalcade and supporters, which led to traffic jams.
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