Former prime minister Chandrashekhar's son Neeraj Shekhar, who has been fielded by the BJP from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, on Thursday said he is still associated with the socialist ideology and slammed the Samajwadi Party (SP) for allegedly doing away with the ideas of Ram Manohar Lohia.

"The socialist ideology should not be linked with the SP. I am still personally associated with the socialist ideology," Neeraj Shekhar told PTI over the phone.

The assertion by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate assumes significance as his late father was a proponent of the socialist ideology and a vocal critic of the saffron party.

Chandrashekhar's entire family is currently in the BJP. His elder son Pankaj Shekhar as well as younger son Neeraj Shekhar are in the saffron party while his grandson Ravi Shankar Singh Pappu is a BJP member in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

Neeraj Shekhar, who has been an SP MP from Ballia in the past, said a wrong perception is being created about the socialist ideology.

"The SP claims to be associated with the socialist ideology, but it has actually abandoned it. Dr Ram Manohar Lohia had raised the slogan of breaking caste barriers, whereas the SP today is hoisting the flag of a caste census," he said.

In its Lok Sabha polls manifesto released by party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday, the SP has promised that a caste census will be conducted by 2025 if it comes to power.

Neeraj Shekhar, who lost the 2014 Lok Sabha poll contest from Ballia to the BJP's Bharat Singh, was denied a ticket by the SP in the general election five years later.

Talking about it, Neeraj Shekhar said it was a dark day in his life when he was denied the poll ticket from Ballia, which is considered the traditional seat of Chandra Shekhar's family. Even though he was made a Rajya Sabha member by the SP, Neeraj Shekhar quit the party and joined the BJP in July 2019.

The BJP announced Neeraj Shekhar's candidature on Wednesday in place of the incumbent MP from Ballia, Virendra Singh Mast. In 2019, the saffron party had given the poll ticket to Mast over the then incumbent MP Bharat Singh.

Born on November 10, 1968 in Ibrahimpatti village of Ballia district, Neeraj Shekhar entered politics after his father's death and made his election debut on an SP ticket in the Lok Sabha bypoll held in 2007.

Chandrashekhar was a Rajya Sabha member from 1962 to 1977. He also represented the Ballia constituency in the Lok Sabha from 1977 till his death due to a serious illness on July 8, 2007.

During this period, he lost the election only once in 1984. The election that year took place after the anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Chandrashekhar contested the 1989 Lok Sabha polls from Ballia as well as Maharajganj in Bihar and won both seats, although he later resigned from Maharajganj.

Ballia will go to polls in the last phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls on June 1. The SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are yet to declare their candidates from the seat.

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