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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Legislators belonging to the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday allegedly roughed up Delhi-based arms dealer Suresh Nanda, whose plunge into the electoral fray for entry to the Rajya Sabha had created a flutter in the political circles of Uttar Pradesh.
A visibly terrorised Nanda withdrew his nomination, both from the biennial poll to ten Rajya Sabha seats as well as from the contest for the lone seat to which a simultaneous by-election was due on November 18.
Congress was short of 14 votes for smooth victory of its nominee Akhilesh Das, as the party has only 24 MLAs in the 403-member UP assembly, as against the minimum requirement of 37 votes for victory.
Clearly, Das was desperately looking for outside support to ensure his second term in the Upper House of parliament.
On the other hand, the BJP was chagrined with Nanda because its dissidents fielded him.
His withdrawal from the fray would ensure unopposed election of each of the official candidates.
The Samajwadi Party has fielded four candidates, the BSP has fielded three and the BJP has two nominees in the fray.
While the SP, the BSP and the BJP had no cause to worry for their official nominees, it was the Congress that was in a precarious condition in the numbers game.
According to eyewitnesses, the incident took place inside the closed hall where nomination papers were being scrutinised. Trouble began when some Congress leaders confronted Nanda over various objections they had already raised against his nomination. What began as a heated exchange between his supporters and some angry Congressmen, culminated in a free-for-all, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party also joined in.
Former Union minister for information and broadcasting Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is in the fray as a BJP nominee, also allegedly slapped Nanda.
While Nanda parried direct queries about the assault, he admitted: "There was some pushing around and much noise following which Pramod Tiwari [Congress] and Lalji Tandon [BJP state minister] held my hand and ushered me out of the hall to the safety of the assembly secretary's chamber."
Explaining his reasons for withdrawing his nomination, he said, "I am told there is some FIR lodged against me in Ghaziabad."
Congress leaders Pramod Tiwari and Jagdambika Pal together with party candidate Akhilesh Das, BJP leader Lalji Tandon and BSP MLA Amar Mani Tripathi did not allow Nanda to speak on his own.
When mediapersons insisted that they leave him alone to answer to their queries, these leaders virtually whisked him away back to the assembly secretary's chamber where the entry of mediapersons is banned.
Later Pramod Tiwari was at pains to explain how Nanda had fraudulently got his name inserted in the voters' list of Ghaziabad.
Assembly secretary R K Pandey declined to make any comment.
ALSO SEE: 13 nominations for 11 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh
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