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Journalism of Courage
Weather played spoilsport with the official Congress nominee for the Rajya Sabha today, forcing him to return to Delhi without filing his nomination but the Congress went one-up and had two other leaders file their papers instead. One of them will withdraw later.
The Congress camp was taken aback for a moment when it was informed that the plane carrying Brijmohan Bhama could not land in Lucknow in the afternoon. The CLP leader and state party president Jagdambika Pal soon contacted higher-ups in New Delhi seeking an alternative plan. ‘‘Our official candidate, Brijmohan Bhama, could not reach Lucknow today because the plane had to return to New Delhi without landing at Lucknow following bad weather. But we got nomination papers filed from our two leaders, one of whom will remain in the fray,’’ CLP leader Pramod Tiwari said. Congress leaders Madan Mohan Shukla and Harendra Agarwal filed their papers just ahead of the deadline for nominations at 3 pm.
With Congress getting in its nominees , there will be a contest for the 11 seats for which 13 nominations have been filed. For nearly four years now, political parties have worked out a consensus on fielding candidates, depending on the number of seats, to ensure their election unopposed. The Congress does not have the numbers to ensure its candidate wins and the decision to field its nominee seems to have come more as a befitting reply to Mulayam Singh Yadav than to lay claim to the seat.
