Two withdraw papers,Dimple set to be elected without contest today

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple is the only candidate left in the fray and 3 pm Saturday is the deadline for withdrawal of nomination.

Those who withdrew their nominations were Dashrath Shankhwar of the Sanyukta Samajwadi party and Sanjeev alias Sanju Katiyar (independent).

After Dimple is declared elected,she will share the distinction with freedom fighter and Constituent Assembly member Purushottam Das Tandon. In UP,only two candidates have so far been declared elected to the Lok Sabha without contest. The first was freedom fighter Purushottam Das Tandon,who was elected from Allahabad in a by-election in 1952.

After ten years,in the 1962 general election,Indian National Congress candidate Manvendra Shah was elected unopposed from Tehri Garhwal constituency,now in Uttarakhand and then part of undivided UP.

In the same year,two more candidates were elected unopposed,one each in Madras and Orissa.

Election Commission officials said that a total of 30 candidates have so far been elected unopposed in the Lok Sabha across the country. While 22 of them were elected in general elections,eight were elected in by-elections.

In the first general election held in 1951,five candidates were elected unopposed,one each in Madras,Orissa,Hyderabad,Saurashtra and Bilaspur. In 1957 again,five were elected unopposed,with two in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Assam,Madhya Pradesh and Mysore.

In 1967,two candidates were elected unopposed in Jammu and Kashmir and one each in Andhra Pradesh,Assam and Nagaland.

One candidate had been elected unopposed in Lakshadweep in 1971,one in Arunachal Pradesh in 1977,one in Jammu and Kashmir in 1980. In 1989 also,one candidate was elected unopposed in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989.

Officials said that five candidates have been elected unopposed to the Legislative Assembly in UP so far.

The Kannauj seat fell vacant when Akhilesh resigned from the Lok Sabha after his election to the UP Legislative Council.

This is Dimple’s second election; the first attempt failed when she was defeated by Raj Babbar of the Congress in the Ferozabad by-election in 2009.