No withdrawals: Close contest in UP RS, Council polls

Lucknow, Mar 20 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh is set to witness a keen contest in the elections on March 28 with none of the 13 candidates for 10 Rajya Sabha and 14 candidates for 13 Legislative Council seats withdrawing nominations as the deadline ended today.

Altogether 13 candidates had filed nominations for the 10 RS seats in UP to biennial polls.

All the nominmations were found valid on Saturday.

In case of LC, nomination of Independent candidate Pradip Singh was rejected for not complying with Articles 3 and 36 of the Representation of People of India (RPI) Act. With this, 14 candidates are in fray for 13 seats.

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 nominations for the Rajya Sabha on Friday -- the last date for filing nominations.

Candidates for the LC seats, who filled their nominations on Friday, 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 alongwith industrialist Sudhanshu (independent) had filed RS nominations on Thursday.

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.

The BSP had already given tickets to three candidates even though it can only win two of the 10 seats. The party was banking on the support of the 38 rebel MLAs, who they claim as party members.

Three official BJP candidates -- Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Ashok Dhawan and Ramnaresh Rawat -- also filed nominations for the LC seats on Thursday.

BSP had already nominated three candidates each for the RS and council seats.

While for BSP, Satish Chandra and Moon Kadh filed nominations for the RS seats, Babu Singh Kushawaha, Jugal Kishore and Sunil Kumar had submitted nominations for the LC seats.

Polling would take place on March 28 from 1000 to 1500 hrs and counting of votes would be taken up thereafter.

The ruling SP, with the help of its allies Rashtriya Lok Dal and other smaller parties, is set to win six of the 10 RS seats, while the BJP and BSP aim at cornering two seats each.

As per the the assembly strength, the SP and its allies have 235 members (SP-194, RLD-15, CPI(M)-2, Loktantrik Congress-2, Akhil Bharatiya Congress-1, Unattached-5 and Independents (16), while the BJP has 83, BSP 67 and Congress 16. One seat is vacant.

A candidate has to get 37 first preference votes for winning the RS elections.

Similarly, in the 13 Council seats at stake, the ruling alliance stands to win eight seats, while the BJP and BSP can take away two seats each. For winning the council seat, a candidate has to secure 29 first preference votes.

UNI NAB VS RP KN1644