Nominations of 13 UP candiates found valid for RS polls

Lucknow, Mar 18 (UNI) The papers of all the 13 candidates -- who had filed nominations for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh -- were found valid today.

Scrutiny, which remained a low key affair, began around 1100 hrs, and was completed in little over one-and-half hrs.

Principal secretary (Legislative Assembly) R P Pandey, who is also the returning officer for the polls, confirmed that all the nominations were found valid.

Altogether 13 candidates had filed nominations for the 10 RS seats in UP to which biennial polls are slated on March 28.

Similarly for 13 legislative council seats, 15 candidates had filed nominations. The scrutiny for their nominations would be held later this evening. Candidates can withdraw papers on March 20.

Janeshwar Mishra, Banwari Lal Kanchal, Veerpal Singh, Virendra Bhatia, Mahendra Mohan Gupta (all Samajwadi Party), Maulana Mahmood Madni (RLD) and Azad Kumar Kardam (Congress) filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha yesterday -- the last date for filing nominations.

Candidates for the LC seats, who filled their nominations yesterday, were Naresh Chandra Uttam, Khawaja Halim, Kashinath, Rakesh Singh Rana, Ramsharan Das, Dayaram Prajapati (all SP), Harpal Singh Saini (RLD), Matiur Rahman (Congress) and Pradeep Kumar Singh (Independent).

BJP candidates Kalraj Mishra and Vinay Katiyar along with industrialist Sudanshu (independent) had filed their RS nominations on Thursday.

According to information available, Mr Mittal's name was proposed by rebel BJP MLAs, who are now unattached in the house, alongwith some Independents and the lone Akhil Bharatiya Congress member Akhilesh Singh.

The industralist is reported to have close links with top BJP leaders at the Centre.

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