With 9th RS candidate, BJP tries to hit BSP-SP alliance

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, March 13

The BJP has evidently nominated a ninth candidate for the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh to upset the applecart of Samajwadi Party-BSP electoral understanding that poses a threat to the saffron party.

For the 10 vacancies arising in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has nominated nine candidates, while SP can safely send one candidate, the spare votes of SP and Congress was to facilitate the entry of BSP candidate Bhimrao Ambedkar.

This mutual give and take was the basis of Mayawati extending support to the two SP candidates for the Lok Sabha bypolls in Phulpur and Gorakhpur.

The new social engineering bringing the OBC, Dalits and Muslims on one platform had visibly made BJP nervous.

If this new effort had worked on the ground or not will become clear on Wednesday when the result of the two bypolls is declared.

However, sources point out that BJP did not want to take any chances and decided to nip this new found understanding in its bud by throwing a spanner in the works by nominating a 9th candidate diminishing the chances of victory of the lone BSP candidate dependent on the spare votes of SP and Congress.

BJP wants papers of Cong candidate rejected

Gandhinagar: The BJP is demanding a probe into alleged irregularities in the nomination forms submitted by Congress candidate Naran Rathwa, a former Union minister. This despite the fact that the returning officer validated all nomination forms on Tuesday. State BJP chief Jitu Vaghani claimed an inquiry by his party had revealed that the Parliament Secretariat in Delhi issued Rathwa the no dues certificate around 3.30 pm on Monday, half-an-hour after the deadline for submitting the forms by 3 pm. “This makes it clear that the no dues certificate attached by Rathwa with his nomination forms was a fake and therefore his nomination should be rejected,” Vaghani said. OC