RS voting nomination submissions close, many will be elected unopposed

Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda, party newcomer Ashok Chavan and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi are all in the running for the Lok Sabha elections, with the deadline for nominations ending on Thursday.

The biennial elections are scheduled to be held on February 27 for 56 seats: 10 in Uttar Pradesh, 6 each in Maharashtra and Bihar, and 5 each in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh seats, 4 seats each in Gujarat and Karnataka, 3 seats each in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Rajasthan, and 3 seats each in Orissa, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh , Haryana and Himachal Pradesh one each.

However, most candidates are likely to be elected unopposed.

February 20 is the last date for withdrawing candidates. Voting is scheduled to take place from 9 am to 4 pm on February 27, and counting will begin at 5 pm that day.

In Uttar Pradesh, eight BJP candidates have filed nominations – former Union minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, state party general secretary Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh, former Agra mayor Naveen Jain and local industrialist and former SP leader Sanjay Seth joined the BJP in 2019.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has renominated Jaya Bachchan and announced former MP Ramjilal Suman and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan as candidates. Sonia Gandhi, who has filed her nomination for the Rajasthan Union Lok Sabha seat, on Thursday informed voters in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli constituency that she will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls due to health and age concerns.

The BJP’s Chunnilal Garasiya and Madan Rathore on Thursday filed nominations for two more seats in the state. The BJP from Maharashtra fielded Chavan, Medha Kulkarni and Ajit Gopcchade, who quit the Congress The party only joined the party on Tuesday. The Shiv Sena nominated Milind Deora, who also resigned from the Congress last month. Congress appointed Chandrakant Handore and NCP Praful Patel.

The NDA currently has 114 seats in the upper house of parliament, including 93 for the BJP. Congress ranks second with 30 seats. Fifty members will retire on April 2 and six members will retire on April 3.

The members whose terms are coming to an end include former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupendra Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya and Muraledharan, and Anil Baruni and Sushil Kumar Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Many senior BJP leaders and outgoing Lok Sabha MPs, including seven Union ministers including Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav, have not been renominated by the party for the biennial Lok Sabha polls amid strong indications that Some of them may contest in the upcoming assembly elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has reappointed Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan as its candidates for the Union House from Odisha and Madhya Pradesh respectively. Of the 28 outgoing MPs, the BJP has renominated only four – Nadda, two Union ministers and state spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi.

Vishno was elected to the upper house of parliament in 2019 with the support of the BJD and the ruling party in Odisha on Wednesday once again extended its support to him. Former Union minister Ajay Maken, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana last year, has been fielded by the Congress party from Karnataka, a state ruled by the party.

In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress candidates are Sagarika Ghose, Sushmita Dev, Mohammad Nadimul Haque and Mamta Bala Thakur, while the BJP has fielded Samik Bhattacharya.

Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Thursday nominated Himachal Pradesh for the lone Lok Sabha seat. Former Union Minister Renuka Chowdhury will return to the Union House from Telangana. Chaudhry (69) served two terms as a member of the Lok Sabha and three terms as a member of the Federal House of Representatives.

M Anil Kumar Yadav is also fielded from the southern state where the party came to power in December last year. The Congress party has also renominated Syed Naseer Hussain, who is the coordinator in the office of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

This will be Hussain’s second term as a member of the Karnataka House of Representatives. The party has also renominated Akhilesh Prasad Singh, president of the state’s Bihar unit.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has announced that Manoj Kumar Jha and Sanjay Yadav will be the party’s candidates for the Bihar Lok Sabha elections. Besides Murugan, the BJP has also fielded Dalit seer Umesh Nath Maharaj from Madhya Pradesh, backward class women leader Maya Naroliya and farmer leader Pansilal Gu Jal.

The Congress nominated its state party unit treasurer Ashok Singh, who filed his nomination papers in Patna. The JD(U)’s Sanjay Kumar Jha and the BJP’s Bhim Singh and Dharamsheela Gupta submitted the papers in the presence of senior NDA leaders in the state, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary.

Congress leader K. Chandrasekhar from Karnataka has been renominated by the party. Devendra Pratap Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party has filed nomination papers for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Chhattisgarh.

In Gujarat, the BJP ousted Union ministers Parshottam Rupala and Mandaviya, who won the 2018 elections in the state, and are likely to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha. Lok Sabha) polls. Besides Nadda, who filed nomination papers on Thursday, the party has fielded leaders Jashvantsinh Parmar and Mayank Nayak and diamond tycoon Govind Dora Govind Dholakia.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from associated news agency – PTI)