Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Sunita Sharma withdrew her nomination for the Bulandshahr-Gautam Buddha Nagar legislative council (local authorities) seat in Uttar Pradesh, the party’s national general secretary Trilok Tyagi said on Wednesday.
The withdrawal paved the way for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Narendra Bhati to be elected unopposed from the constituency. A formal announcement on Bhati’s election is expected to be made after the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations ends on Thursday.
“It was indeed shocking for us,” said Tyagi on the withdrawal. He accused the BJP of acting unethically.
Returning officer C P Singh did videography of the withdrawal process. He asked Sunita Sharma whether she was doing it under pressure and she denied it.
Tyagi also claimed the BJP resorted to a similar “unethical practice” during the panchayat elections last year.
Earlier, the RLD was given the Meerut- Ghaziabad and Bulanshahar- Gautam Buddha Nagar seats as part of a seat-sharing formula with its alliance partner, the Samajwadi Party. The RLD fielded former block pramukh Sunita Sharma for the Bulandshahr-Gautam Buddh aNagar seat and Sunil Rohta for the Meerut-Ghaziabad seat.
Tuesday was the last date for the scrutiny of nominations. The returning officer rejected nomination papers of two independent candidates. Sunita Sharma presented her application to withdraw her name from the contest on Tuesday. This left BJP candidate Narendra Bhati alone in the fray. Bhati is a former Samajwadi Party leader.
{{/usCountry}}Tuesday was the last date for the scrutiny of nominations. The returning officer rejected nomination papers of two independent candidates. Sunita Sharma presented her application to withdraw her name from the contest on Tuesday. This left BJP candidate Narendra Bhati alone in the fray. Bhati is a former Samajwadi Party leader.
{{/usCountry}}Bharatiya Janata Party (Bulandshahr) district general secretary Sanjay Gurjar said the RLD’s allegations against the BJP are baseless.
Everyone has the right to file or withdraw nomination in a democracy, Gurjar said.
The process of withdrawing the nomination is transparent because the person had to go through it in front of the district magistrate, who is the returning officer in the district, he said.
Polling to fill 36 Uttar Pradesh legislative council seats under the local authorities is scheduled on April 9.