Rae Bareli byelection notification tomorrow

Lucknow, Apr 12 (UNI) The notification for the crucial Rae Bareli by byelection, from where AICC president Sonia Gandhi is seeking a re-election after resigning last month following the office of profit controversy, will be issued tomorrow.

The notification tomorrow will mark the opening of nominations.

Nominations will close on April 20, while scrutiny will take place on April 21. The last date for withdrawal of nomination is April 24.

The election will be held on May 8.

While political observers see the by-election as a cake walk for Ms Gandhi, all the Opposition parties -- except for the BSP -- are fielding candidates against here.

Expelled BJP leader Uma Bharti's candidate Prabha Singh Lodh is likely to file her nomination tomorrow on an Apna Dal ticket.

''Since Ms Bharti's new party would be formed only on April 30, we have reached an understanding with Apna Dal to field Ms Lodh against the AICC president,'' Ravindra Shukla who has recently quit the BJP, to join Ms Bharti said here.

The ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) has already announced it would field a candidate against the UPA chairperson. '' We would file a strong candidate who would win the election,'' senior SP leader and state PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav said here.

The BJP, though yet undecided, would also field a candidate against Ms Gandhi.

BSP national president and former UP chief Minister Mayawati has decided against fielding anyone against Ms Gandhi. ''The presence of Ms Gandhi in Lok Sabha would weaken the BJP...her re-election woud maintain balance of power between BJP and Congress which would ultimaterly help the BSP,'' she claimed.

But the SP alleged that Ms Mayawati was not fielding anyone against Ms Gandhi to save herself from the probe into the controversial Taj Heritage Corridor (THC) scam.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) is likely to increase the number of voting booths in the Rae Bareli constituency by 1500. THe new booths would be besides the 1279 booths already present.

The new booths would ensure that there are not more than 1400 voters per booth.

Ms Gandhi had quit the Rae Bareli seat on March 23, a day after the Budget session of Parliament had adjourned sine die, stating that she had been ''immensely hurt'' by the opposition charge that the government was making all efforts to issue an ordinance on the office of profit issue only to ''save her.'' She had also resigned as the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC), allegedly an office of profit that had raised the demand for her disqualification. Irrespective of her resignation, President A P J Abdul Kalam had forwarded the NDA petition seeking her disqualification to the Election Commission.

In the 2004 Parliamentary elections to constitute the 14th Lok Sabha, Ms Gandhi had won the Rae Bareli seat by a margin of 2,49,765 votes, defeating her nearest Samajwadi Party nominee Ashok Kumar Singh. She had polled 3,78,107 votes, representing 58.75 per cent of the total votes polled. The SP candidate could manage only 19.94 per cent, followed by Mr Rajesh Yadav (BSP) with 8.94 per cent and Mr Girish Narayan Panday (BJP) with 4.86 per cent. In all, there were 16 contestants for the seat.

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