Lucknow: After springing a surprise last week by fielding Reliance Group president Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani as a nominee for the Rajya Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party on Monday appeared all set to throw up another surprise in the form of its third candidate for the electoral contest.
The SP on Monday started preparations to field a third candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections and secured signatures of 10 MLAs as proposers for the name of the nominee on the designated form. The party has kept the candidate’s name under wraps and will reveal only on Tuesday (Oct 6) which is the last date for filing nominations. SP MLA from Lucknow Central, Ravidas Mehrotra, on Monday announced that the party leadership has assigned him the task to secure the signature of 10 MLAs as proposers for the third candidate and he has got their signatures on the prescribed form. Earlier, SP leadership had kept its cards close to its chest while deciding the names of the first two candidates for the polls who had filed their nominations on Sept 30.
Interestingly, the SP decision to field the third candidate has set stage for a keen contest as the BJP has announced eight nominees for the Rajya Sabha polls.
“The name of the candidate will be formally announced on Tuesday,” Ravidas said. name of party veteran Ram Gopal Yadav – the SP secretary general – was more or less a given While Dhanraj’s name was declared barely a couple of hours before he reached Vidhan Sabha at 11am to file his nomination. As per the math, SP will see two of the candidates comfortably sail through and BJP has the strength to get seven candidates elected.