Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar on Wednesday filed his nomination papers as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the bypoll to a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh.
The by-election was necessitated by Shekhar’s resignation from the Rajya Sabha recently. The term of the seat is up to November 25, 2020. He had resigned as Samajwadi Party member from the Rajya Sabha before joining the BJP.
During filing of the nomination, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP state chief Swatantra Dev Singh and several UP ministers and BJP leaders were present.
Surprisingly, a couple of senior SP leaders, including MLC Ravi Shankar Singh Pappu and former MLC CP Chandra, were also there to support Neeraj Shekhar. His cousin Ravi Shankar Singh is likely to join the BJP in the coming days.
Wednesday was the last date for filing of nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha bypoll. Only Shekhar filed the nomination papers for the lone seat. Scrutiny of papers will be done on August 16. The last date for withdrawal of papers is August 19.
With no other candidate in the fray, Neeraj Shekhar is set to be declared elected unopposed.
