NEW DELHI: Multi-cornered contests seem imminent in next month’s elections to the lower house of Indian Parliament and Slate assemblies with more than 11000 aspirants in the race as the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations ended Monday.
The battle of the ballots will be fought largely by the Congress-I the National Front and its left allies and the right wing BJP besides the Samajwadi Janata Dal of Chandra Shekhar
With the withdrawal of dummy candidates and last minute changes of nominees by the political parties the third phase of the electoral process has come to an end
Elections are being held to 516 Lok Sabha seats besides assemblies of seven states and the union territory of Pondicherry.
The states are Haryana West Bengal Assam Punjab Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh and Kerala.
Both Lok Sabha and assembly polls in Punjab would be held on June 22 while in Assam it is scheduled for June 6 and 8. Meanwhile SJD president Devi Lal said in a statement here that he had asked his sons—Om Prakash Chautala and Ranjit Singh to withdraw their candidature from the Haryana assembly elections. He said they “have agreed to do so”. Devi Lal said though off springs and relatives of senior politicians contesting elections and occupying high positions was a “long standing tradition” of our democracy “three of us contesting the elections might be construed as furthering the family interests.”
Assembly elections in the two constituencies of Moga and Baghapurana in Faridkot district of Punjab were countermanded following the gunning down of Malkiat Singh Sidhu a former minister and Akali Dal (Mann) candidate by militants near Moga On Saturday night.
An election department spokesman said in Chandigarh that elections would now be held for 115 assembly constituencies
Article extracted from this publication >> May 3, 1991
