Congress finds it difficult to finalise names for UP bypolls

Heavy rush of ticket seekers has made it difficult for the Uttar Pradesh Congress to finalise names of candidates for three assembly seats where bypolls are due in the near future.

Though the party has finalised candidates for nine of the 12 seats where by-elections would be held, those for Lucknow (West), Jhansi and Laltipur have not been decided so far.

The party, which had earlier seen poor response from candidates in the Lok Sabha polls and even had to leave some seats uncontested, has 35 and 15 applicants respectively for
Jhansi and Lalitpur. For Lucknow (West), there are some 70 applicants, a Congress leader said.

Jhasi seat fell vacant when sitting MLA of Congress Pradip Jain Aditya got elected to the Lok Sabha while bypolls have been necessitated in Lucknow (West) with Lalji Tandon
(BJP) winning the May parliamentary polls. In Lalitpur, a vacancy has been created following the death of Nathuram Kushuwaha of BSP.