gorakhpur in a surprise move samajwadi party sp on friday replaced its candidate madhushyam rai by udainarayan gupta from tamkuhiraj assembly seat in kushinagar as the former was going to file his nomination papers political analysts said that the sp wanted to secure the seat for the congress which did not field any candidate against sp chief akhilesh yadav and his uncle shivpal yadav from mainpuris karhal and etawahs jaswant nagar seats respectively state congress chief ajay kumar lallu is contesting from tamkuhirajon friday madhushyam rai after performing puja at hanuman temple and chadarposhi at a mazar started his journey to the kushinagar collectorate with his supporters to file nomination papers but on the way he got the message of ticket denial and had to return disappointeda political analyst sunil tripathi described the sp decision as a move to secure the seat for the congress party samajwadi party is trying to secure the seat for the congress party as congress state president ajay kumar lallu is also contesting from the same seat the sp wants to repay the congress for not fielding candidates against sp chief akhilesh yadav and his uncle shivpal yadav the ticket was actually for former bjp mla nand kishore mishra who joined sp in 2018 mishra is very popular and this time his victory was almost certain earlier sp gave ticket to udainarayan gupta who is not considered as influential as mishra and later fielded madhushyam rai resulting in internal protests however after mishra gave the statement that he is happy with the decision and he is a dedicated worker of the party the protest inside the party stopped he added