Lucknow, (Samajweekly) Hours after five Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs revolted against the party’s official Rajya Sabha candidate Ramji Gautam, and claimed that their signatures as proposers were forged, the returning officer declared that Gautam’s nomination papers were valid.
The returning officer, on the other hand, cancelled the nomination of Prakash Bajaj, an Independent supported by the Samajwadi Party.
The reason behind the cancellation of Bajaj’s nomination papers was that the name one proposer was given as ‘Nawab Shah’ whereas his name is ‘Nawab Jaan’.
With this development, there are now 10 candidates for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and all of them will be declared elected unopposed.
Aslam Chaudhary, one of the BSP MLAs who had claimed that the signatures were forged, said, “Everyone knows how the law is being twisted by the BJP. I have contested and won the election against the BJP and will not accept this.”
Samajwadi leader Udaiveer Singh, however, said that the cancellation of Prakash Bajaj’s papers was ‘unlawful’ and had exposed the nexus between the BSP and the BJP.
Sources said that Bajaj would approach the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday and appeal against the decision of the returning officer.
Political analysts said that the battle is not likely to be resolved soon and the ensuing battle could have far reaching consequences on the politics of the state.
