Nomination filing for first phase ends

NEW DELHI: The process of filing nominations for 91 Lok Sabha seats across 20 states and Union territories that would go to the polls in the first phase of national elections on April 11 closed on Monday.

State assembly polls will also be held along with the national elections in Arunachal, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha on April 11.

The 91 seats include eight in western Uttar Pradesh, five in Uttarakhand, two in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Bihar, all but six seats in the north-east, five in Bihar, two in Bengal and one each in Andaman and Lakshadweep.

In Uttar Pradesh, Saharanpur is among the seats, where Lok Sabha elections would be held in the first phase. Ghaziabad, too, would go to the polls on April 11.

MoS for external affairs VK Singh is contesting from Ghaziabad. In neighbouring Gautam Buddh Nagar, culture minister Mahesh Sharma is up against BSP’s Satbir Nagar while Rashtriya Lok Dal chief, Ajit Singh, is pitted against Union minister Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan in Muzaffarnagar.

In Bagpat, Ajit Singh’s son, Jayant Chaudhary is in the fray against former Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh.

Among the five high-profile seats that would go to the polls on April 11 in Uttarakhand, Congress leader and former CM, Harish Rawat, is contesting against state BJP chief, Ajay Bhatt, in Nainital-Uddamsingh Nagar.

In Tehri Gharwal seat, former chief minister BC Khanduri’s son, Manish Khanduri, is up against the BJP’s Tirath Singh Rawat on a Congress ticket in the first phase. B C Khanduri is the BJP MP from Tehri.

In Bihar, former chief minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi, is pitted against Vijay Manjhi of JD (U) in the first phase of polling in Gaya. JD (U) is contesting the elections in alliance with the BJP. Union minister Ramvilas Paswan’s son, Chirag Paswan, will be seeking re-election from Jamui.