Lucknow: Arvind Kumar Sharma, a former bureaucrat and a close confidante of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was among 12 candidates of the BJP and Samajwadi Party who were elected unopposed to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Only 12 candidates, ten from BJP and two from Samajwadi Party, were in fray for 12 vacant biennial seats after rejection of nomination of 13th candidate Mahesh Chandra Sharma during scrutiny on Tuesday. Today was the last date for withdrawal of nominations. Elections were not necessitated as there were only 12 candidates for 12 vacant seats. All of them were declared elected unopposed after the deadline for withdrawal of nomination ended Thursday.
Besides Sharma, those who were elected unopposed include the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma, party state president Swatantra Dev Singh, Lakshman Acharya, Govind Narayan Shukla, Salil Boshnoi, Ashwani Tyagi, Surendra Chowdhary, Dharamveer Prajapati and Kunwar Manvendra Singh.
The Samajwadi Party candidates Ahmed Hasan and Rajendra Chowdhary were also declared elected unopposed.
After the election of Modi’s 'Man Friday' Arvind Kumar Sharma to the Upper House, it would be interesting to watch if he is given a berth in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet. His election coincided with the visit of BJP National President J.P. Nadda, who is likely to discuss the issue with the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and senior party functionaries.
