Day 2: No nomination filed for RS polls in UP

Lucknow, Nov 5 (UNI) No nomination has yet been filed for the November 21 biennial elections to the ten Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

On the third day of the filing of nominations today, no forms were submitted as the political parties were taking their time to select candidates.

The last date for filing of the nominations is November 10, scrutiny, the following day, while the last date of withdrawal of names is November 14.

All political parties were, meanwhile, keeping all options open to select the candidates. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would announce its candidate in New Delhi on November 8, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) might disclose the names by the end of this week.

The Samajwadi Party (SP), which is trying to contest the Rajya Sabha polls in alliance with the Congress, was still in a discussing mode with the Congress leadership.

In alliance with the Congress, the SP can win three seats out of the 10, while the ruling BSP can win six seats, if it manages to get six additional votes.

The Rajya Sabha members whose term were expiring on November 25 are: Rajnath Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (both of BJP), Amar Singh, Saahid Siddique, Abu Asim Azmi, Uday Pratap Singh (all SP), Esam Singh, Veer Singh, Gandhi Azad(all BSP) and Akhilesh Das(Congress).

However, seats of Esam Singh and Akhilesh Das had fallen vacant earlier.

The state Assembly's strength is as follows: BSP-216, SP-94, BJP-51, Congress-21, RLD-10, Rastriya Swabhiman Party-1, Independents-8 and Nominated-1.

UNI MB JAS ATI AS1837