13 left in fray for Noida LS seat

Thirteen candidates, including two independents, were left in the fray for the Gautam Buddh Nagar Lok Sabha election on the last day for withdrawal of nomination Thursday, said poll officials.

Twenty-one candidates had filed the papers but the nominations of eight of them, including Aam Aadmi Party's Shweta Sharma, were rejected by the returning officer in compliance with the Election Commission guidelines, they said.

The polling for the Gautam Buddh Nagar seat will be held in the first-phase on April 11, when 91 Lok Sabha seats across 20 states go to the polls.

In 2014, 24 candidates had contested for the gautam Budh Nagar seat with 22 of them forfeiting their deposits. In 2009, 26 candidates were in the fray from here.

Those left in the fray for the Noida seat are its sitting BJP MP Mahesh Sharma, 59, Congress candidate Arvind Kumar Singh, 30, and BSP leader Satveer, 37. Satveer has the backing of the Samajwadi Party also.

Other candidates include Jagdeep Singh of the Loktantrik Janshakti Party, Jeetendra Singh of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), Dayaram of the Aap ki Apni Party, Raghuvendra Kumar of the Subhashvadi Bharatiya Samajwadi Party (Subhash Party), and Rampal of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh.

The list also has Vinod Kumar Nagar of the Rashtriya Bharatiya Jan Jan Party, Vinod Sharma of the All Indian Rajiv Congress Party and Sher Singh Upadhyay of the Rashtriya Janata Party, District Magistrate and Returning Officer Brajesh Narain Singh said.

There are two independents too in the fray - Ashok Kumar Adhana and Rodash Gupta, he said.

Altogether eight nominations out of those for 21 were rejected. There was no withdrawal by any candidate on March 28, the last day for withdrawal, leaving 13 candidates whose nomination has been approved for the election, the officer said.

Spread across Noida, Dadri, Jewar, Sikandrabad and Khurja assembly segments, the Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency has over 22 lakh voters at present.

The constituency had registered a 60.38 percent voter turnout with 11.99 lakh voters exercising their franchise in 2014, when 24 candidates, including nine independents were in the fray.

The number of contestants for the Gautam Budh Nagar Lok Sabha seat in 2009 was 26, including 12 independents. Over 7.38 lakh voters had cast their votes that year.