Jaya Bachchan set to enter RS second time

Lucknow, June 5: Two former Samajwadi Party MPs including cine star Bachchan Jaya Amibabh are all set to be elected unopposed in the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

Amir Alam Khan is the other SP candidate, who represented Kairana in Muzzafarnagar district of West UP in Lok Sabha twice.

On the last day of filing nomination today, no other candidate filed their papers -- leaving only the SP nominees in fray.

The scrutiny would be done tomorrow and the official announcement made on June 8 after 1500 hrs, when the time for withdrawal of nominations expires.

This would be Jaya's second entry to the RS after 2004. She had to resign the seat in March following the raging office of profit controversy. Mr Khan will make his maiden entry in the upper house.

The main opposition BJP and Congress had already expressed their unwillingness to contest the two RS seats.

BSP was not keen to fight the bypolls as the winning candidate was to be decided by majority vote seperately for the two seats.

State BJP president Keshri Nath Tripathi had told UNI as the winners would be decided seperately by majority vote of the assembly, hence the party was not interested in contesting the bypolls.

''Even a joint-opposition candidate will not be able to win as the SP-led coalition has the majority in the house.'' Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari had already announced the party would not contest the RS bypolls.

UNI