Lucknow, Jan 24: The Lucknow franchise of the Indian Premier League will be called Lucknow Super Giants after its owners announced the name chosen by its fans.

The official IPL team of Lucknow, owned by RPSG Group, decided to take public opinions from its fans and the name was shared by owner Sanjiv Goenka in a video message on Monday.

"Thank you so much for your overwhelming response to the 'Naam banao naam kamao' contest. Lakhs and lakhs of people responded, based on that we are very happy to choose the name for the Lucknow IPL team," Goenka said in his message, while revealing the team name.

"And the name that we have chosen based on your recommendations is Lucknow Super Giants. Thak you so much for your response and love and continue to give us your blessings in the future as well."

The franchise owners had launched a consumer engagement campaign on social media on January 3 to decide the name of the new IPL side.

Lucknow and Ahmedabad will be the two new teams in the IPL from this year as the lucrative T20 tournament expanded its wings to become a 10-team contest.

KL Rahul will lead the Lucknow franchise in the upcoming IPL.

Besides the Lucknow franchise, which was bought by RSPG Group for a whopping Rs 7,090 crore, Ahmedabad is the other new team bring purchased by CVC Capital Partners for Rs 5,625 crore.

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Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.

A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".

"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.

"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.

Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.

The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.

In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.

Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.