Notwithstanding a pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, a defiant candidate on Wednesday filed his nomination as a Congress nominee from Gauriganj assembly seat which has been given to the ruling party for the high-stake Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Mohammed Naim, who had unsuccessfully contested the last assembly polls from Gauriganj assembly segment on a Congress ticket, is the latest entrant in the list of candidates who have refused to withdraw their candidature despite the seat-sharing pact between both the parties.
Ameeta Sinh, the wife of Congress leader Sanjay Sinh, will also file her nomination as a Congress nominee from Amethi seat from where Sanjay’s estranged first wife Garima Sinh is contesting on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket.
The SP, which has got the Amethi assembly constituency under the seat-sharing arrangement with Congress, has given ticket to sitting MLA and controversial leader Gayatri Prajapati from the Congress bastion. SP has already fielded its sitting MLA from Gauriganj seat.
Candidates of both the SP and the Congress have filed their nominations in over 10 seats despite forming the alliance.
However, both the parties have downplayed it, with All India Congress Committee general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad saying SP candidates had filed their papers when it appeared that the alliance would not come through and though at some places they wanted to withdraw, they could not do so due to uncertainty.
In Muzaffarnagar, the Election Commission has allotted party symbols to the candidates of both Congress and Samajwadi Party from Purkazi assembly constituency, the seat which was given to the Congress.
There would be a three-cornered fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and SP-Congress alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
Out of the 403 assembly seats, SP would be contesting 298 and the Congress the rest 105.
