With the last day for nomination expired on Tuesday, a total of 19 candidates are in fray for the by-election to Charkhari and Pharenda Assembly seats. The polling for the two seats would be held on April 11 with counting would take place on 15 April.
According to reports, of the 14 candidates who filed their nominations on the last day on Tuesday, nine filed their papers for Charkhari seat in Mahoba and five for Pharenda in Mahrajganj. With this, a total of 19 candidates - 12 in Charkhari and 7 in Pharenda - are in the fray for the by-election to these seats. Scrutiny of the nomination papers would be done on March 25 (Wednesday) while candidates can withdraw their nominations till March 27.
The election to these seats was necessitated following disqualification of then MlAs Kaptan Singh Rajput (SP) from Charkhari, and Bajrang Bahadur Singh (BJP) from Pharenda. While the former was disqualified after being convicted by court in a murder case, action on the latter was taken for getting government contracts being an MlA. However, BJP has once again fielded Bajrang Bahadur Singh from Pharenda as its candidate claiming that though he had been disqualified, the commission had not put a ban on his contesting again. From Charkhari, BJP gave ticket to Akhil Rajput. Interestingly, Bajrang, also went to High Court after which the election to Pharenda seat was stayed. However, the Election Commission filed a review petition in the Apex Court, which finally on Monday, stayed the order passed by the High Court, paving way for the by-polls in Pharenda to continue as per the schedule of the Election Commission.
Besides BJP, ruling Samajwadi Party and the Congress already announced their candidates for Charkhari and Pharenda seats. SP announced the names of Urmila Rajput and Vinod Tewari from Charkhari and Pharenda assembly seats respectively, while on the other hand, Congress has decided to field Virendra Chaudhary from Pharenda seat in Maharajganj district and Ramjiwan Yadav from Charkhari seat of Mahoba. By-polls to Charkhari was held following the disqualification of sitting MlA Kaptan Singh Rajput of SP. He was disqualified after being convicted by court in a murder case.