Six file nominations for various seats in Agra district

Agra, Jan 17 (PTI) A total of six candidates, including two of the BJP and a transgender, filed their nominations on Monday for the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Besides the two BJP candidates, two independents and one each of the Congress and Samajwadi Party filed their nominations on the third day for the purpose, as fixed for the state's seven-phase assembly poll schedule.

The BJP candidates who filed their papers to relevant returning officers are Chaudhary Babulal for the Fatehpur Sikri assembly segment and Dharampal Singh for the Etmadpur seat.

While submitting their nomination papers, they claimed they aim at working for the development of their constituencies.

Chaudhary Babulal is a one-time MP and two-time MLA from the Fatehpur Sikri and had also served as a state minister in the past.

The supporters of a BJP party leader, who had been eying the Fatehpur seat had earlier protested against the BJP decision to field Chaudhary Babulal from Fatehpur Sikri.

Dharampal Singh, a former BSP MLA from the Etmadpur constituency in Agra and seen as a prominent Rajput leader, had joined the BJP on January 12 in the presence of the senior BJP state leaders after a brief stint in the Samajwadi Party.

The allocation of the ticket to Singh too had triggered protest among the BJP party workers.

The SP candidate Madhusudan Sharma, who filed his nomination for the Bah seat, said, “There are various issues in the constituency. If I win the election, my main priority would be to make Bah a district." Sharma was a BSP MLA from Bah in past and presently he is the SP district president for Agra.

Others who filed their nominations are Congress candidate Vinod Bansal for the Agra North seat and independents Arun Kant Katheria and Akash Soni, a transgender, for Agra rural and Agra Cantonment PTI CORR RAX RAX