Two BJP candidates are set to enter the Uttar Pradesh legislative council as the nomination paper of Samajwadi Party’s Kriti Kol was on Tuesday rejected on the grounds of her age. The two seats on which the bypolls are to be held fell vacant after the death of Samajwadi Party’s Ahmad Hassan and the resignation of BJP’s Thakur Jaiveer Singh, who won the recent assembly polls.
During scrutiny, the nomination paper of the SP candidate was not found valid and rejected as she is 28-years-old and does not fulfil the required minimum age criterion of 30 years for entering the House, Election Officer Brijbhushan Dubey told PTI. The candidate has in her affidavit and electoral identity card mentioned her age as 28 years, which does not fulfil the minimum age criterion, he added.
Following the development, Dharmendra Singh Sainthwar and Nirmala Paswan, who filed their nominations as BJP candidates on Monday, are set to enter the Upper House of the state legislature. On Saturday, the BJP had declared Sainthwar, its Gorakhpur regional president and Paswan, its Kashi region vice president as the party’s official candidates.
The two BJP candidates will be declared as elected on August 4, Dubey said. Kol, who was the SP’s candidate from the Chhanbe seat in Mirzapur constituency during the assembly polls and represents the tribal community.
The 100-member council has 73 BJP members, nine from the SP, four independents, two from the Teachers’ group, and one each from Apna Dal (S), Nishad Party and Jansatta Dal. There are eight vacant seats in the council.
In the assembly of 403 MLAs, the BJP and its allies have a majority with 273 members as the saffron party has 255 legislators, Apna Dal(S) 12 and Nishad Party six. The SP has 111 members and its ally RLD eight. The SBSP has six members, Jansatta Dal and Congress have two members each and BSP has one.
BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma claimed that the SP was aware that Kol’s nomination would be rejected, but it still went ahead as it wanted to show its concern for the tribal community. The SP did not support NDA’s presidential candidate Doupadi Murmu, who was a tribal, and to make up for that, they nominated Kol, Sharma claimed. Meanwhile, SP spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria said he was not aware of the rejection of Kol’s nomination and will see what actually happened before making any comments.
Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment