Congress replaces Rashid Alvi with Sachin Choudhary as candidate from UP's Amroha

The Congress on Monday replaced senior leader Rashid Alvi with Sachin Choudhary as its candidate for Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh's Amroha after the earlier refused to contest the polls citing poor health. Alvi was seen as Congress party's counter to BSP candidate Danish Ali, who recently quit the JD(S) to join hands with Mayawati.

Alvi, the 63-year-old senior Congress leader, was first elected as an MP from Amroha seat in 1999 on a BSP ticket. He, however, later switched his loyalty towards the Congress and became a Rajya Sabha MP in 2004. A native of Chandpur city in Bijnor district which is near Amroha district, Alvi was Congress party's national spokesperson from 2011 to 2013.

Sachin Choudhary, who replaced Alvi, rose to prominence when he exposed toilet scam in Amroha and sat on an indefinite strike. He also started a signature campaign in the constituency and was also a contender for the ticket from Samajwadi Party. However, the Amroha seat went to Mayawati's party as per the seat-sharing pact of SP-BSP-RLD alliance and Sachin started making efforts for a Congress ticket.

District president of Congress, Sukhraj Singh had also sent Choudhary's name along with Alvi to the central leadership in his list of probable contenders from the Amroha seat. 

Amroha has over 16 lakh voters with a majority of them belonging to the Muslim community. There are around 5.5 lakh Muslim voters, over 2.5 lakh SC/ST, around 1.2 lakh Jats and more than 1 lakh Gujjars. BJP has once against entrusted sitting MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar from Amroha.