The SP's list of 321 candidates, announced by Chief Minister and SP president Akhilesh Yadav till date, has excluded 93 names that figured in the list released by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Yadav in December. The current list includes only a handful of candidates cleared by MSY. Among the 93 rejected candidates are gangster Atiq Ahmed from Kanpur Cantonment, gangster-turned-MLA from Gyanpur seat of Bhadohi district and former minister Amarmani Tripathi's son Amanmani, arrested last year on charges of murdering his wife, from Nautanwa seat of Maharajganj. Akhilesh has also dropped two ministers, Manpal Singh from Kasganj seat and Vijay Kumar Mishra from Ghazipur seat. Shadab Fatima, MLA from Zahoorabad seat of Ghazipur, who the CM had sacked from his Cabinet, has also been replaced. The candidates whose fates hang in the balance are minister and Mulayam loyalist Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, MLA from Amethi, and QED MLA Sibgatulla Ansari from Mohammadabad seat of Ghazipur. His party merged with SP when Shivpal was state president. His brother, jailed gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar, is said to have decided to contest as an independent against the SP nominee from Mau. Akhilesh rejected the name of Ashish Pandey, son of Mulayam loyalist Jai Shankar Pandey, from Ayodhya and named MLA from the seat Pawan Pandey. He has given a ticket to Jai Shankar from Katehari from neighbouring Ambedkar Nagar district.