16 candidates in fray for Rae Bareli bypoll

Rae Bareli, UP, Apr 24 (UNI) Following the withdrawal of four nominations today, 16 candidates including Congress president Sonia Gandhi are left in fray for the May 8 Rae Bareli bypoll.

The withdrawn nominations included Mohd Najim (Inquilab Party of India), Surendra Kumar, Hori Lal and Vasudev (all Independents).

A total of 24 candidates had filed nominations for the high profile parliamentary constituency.

However, nominations of four Independents including Ashok Pandey, Bharat, Sanjay Kumar and Manish Chandra Sharma were rejected by District Magistrate -- ex-officio Returning Officer -- Jitendra Kumar during scrutiny of papers on April 21. Hence, 20 candidates were left after scrutiny.

Apart from Sonia, BJP general secretary Vinay Katiyar, Samajwadi Party's Rajkumar Chowdhary and Apna Dal's Prabha Singh Lodh -- supported by expelled BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti -- are contesting the bypoll.

Deepa of Rashtrawadi Janata Party (RJP) is also in fray.

The Rae Bareli bypoll was necessitated after the Congress chief resigned her Lok Sabha seat on the office of profit controversy.

BJP leader Pramod Mahajan had accompanied party nominee Vinay Katiyar, when he filed his nomination paper on April 20.

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