Lucknow: Riding high on the support from
Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal, Congress candidate
Satish Sharma today filed his nomination papers for the Rajya
Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh.
During nomination, Sharma, a former Union Minister,
was flanked by SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav
and RLD state president Ram Asrey Varma, besides senior
Congress leaders, including AICC secretary Parvez Hashmi, UPCC
president Reeta Bahuguna Joshi and CLP leader Pramod Tiwari.
Sharma filed his nomination papers before the
returning office and principal secretary Vidhan Sabha Pradeep
Dubey this afternoon.
RLD state president Ram Asrey Varma, who is suffering
from some infection, had come all the way from the Sanjay
Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, where he
was undergoing treatment.
Having 21 members of its own in the UP Legislative
Assembly, the Congress was 13 short of the required 34 votes.
However, with the support the SP, having 19 surplus
votes, 10 MLAs of the RLD and four independents, the Congress
nominee is most likely to be elected to the Upper House.
SP which has 87 members in 403 member Assembly had
already fielded two candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls.
"We are grateful to RLD, SP and Independents who have
extended support to the Congress candidate to strengthen
secular forces in the state," Congress Legislative Party
Leader Pramod Tiwari told reporters.
He said that besides RLD MLAs, surplus votes of SP,
four independent MLAs have also extended support to Sharma
"Our candidate would get 54 to 55 votes in the
election which would be a record," Tiwari claimed.
Meanwhile, SP candidates Mohan Singh and Rashid Masood
also filed their nomination papers in the presence of senior
party leaders, including Shivpal Singh, state president
Akhilesh Yadav, Ahmad Hassan and Ambika Chaudhary.
Of 10 Rajya Sabha members from UP, whose term would
expire on July 4, seven are of SP, two of BSP and one from
BJP.
In addition to these 10 seats, bye-election for one is
also being held following demise of SP Rajya Sabha member
Janeshwar Mishra.
Prominent leaders, whose term expires on July 4
include Jaya Bachchan, Arun Shourie, Bhagwati Singh and Satish
Chandra Mishra.
PTI
