BJP nominees file papers for UP Legislative Council polls
Lucknow, April 16: Ten candidates of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one member of their ally Apna Dal on Monday filed their nominations for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council polls, scheduled for April 26.
The BJP has named Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Mahendra Singh, Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Mohsin Raza, Sarojini Agarwal, Ashok Kataria, Yashwant Singh, Ashok Dhawan, Jaiveer Singh and Buqqal Nawaab as its candidates for elections to the upper House of the state assembly.
One seat has been given to Ashish Singh, president of Apna Dal.
Earlier, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath drove to the party headquarters and greeted the candidates. BJP state unit chief Mahendra Nath Pandey also wished them success.
While two candidates of the party are ministers in the state government and five others party office-bearers, the BJP has also given tickets to Jaiveer Singh who was formerly with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and to Sarojini Agarwal and Buqqal Nawab, formerly Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders.
Voting for the 13 seats of the 100-member upper House will be held on April 26.
The SP has named its state unit chief Naresh Uttam for the polls while the BSP has fielded B.R. Ambedkar, who unsuccessfully contested the Rajya Sabha biennial polls last month. The SP has assured the BSP candidate of its surplus votes.
The tenure of 12 MLCs, including former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is coming to an end on May 5. One seat is vacant because of the resignation of former minister Ambika Chowdhary, who joined the BSP from the SP ahead of the state assembly polls in 2017.
Of the 100 seats in the Council, there are 38 seats for which MLAs cast their votes and for 36 more, nominations are made through the local bodies.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
