3 BJP candidates file RS nomination

Bhopal, Mar 15: BJP Vice President and its Mahila Morcha state incharge Maya Singh, BJP Secretary Prabhat Jha and senior leader Raghunandan Sharma today filed their nomination papers for the biennial election to fill up three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh falling vacant next month.

Outgoing member Maya Singh, along with two other candidates, filed her papers before Returning Officer and Vidhan Sabha Principal Secretary A K Payasi. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state BJP Presidnet Narendra Singh Tomar and other party leaders were also present. With this, there were four candidates for three seats, with the fourth candidate being Congress-supported independent Vivek Tankha, a former Advocate General.

The BJP, having a strength of 166 in the 231-member Assembly, including one nominated, is facing a shortage of eight votes to ensure the victory of the third candidate. The Chief Minister told reporters that he was confident of the victory of all the three BJP candidates as he had sought the support of the opposition members, including those of the Gondwana Gantantra Party, Rashtriya Samanata Dal and an Independent.

With three vacancies at present in the Assembly, Congress had a strength of 41, Samajwadi Party-eight, GGP three, Rashtriya Samanata Dal two, Bahujan Samaj Party two, CPI(M) and Janata Dal(United) one each and independents two.

Today was the last day for filing nominations and voting is scheduled on March 28.

UNI