Patni, Neeraj file papers

TWO PROMINENT candidates for the mayoral election, Ravindra Patni of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Neeraj Chaturvedi of the Samajwadi Party (SP) waited for the auspicious moment to file their nomination papers. 

Patni arrived at the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) at around 11 am along with senior BJP leaders and filed his nomination papers at 11.15 am.

The senior BJP leaders who accompanied Patni included party MLA Salil Bishnoi, former MP Shyam Behari Mishra, Sanjay Updhyaya, Surendra Maithani and senior RSS leaders of the city.

After filing his nomination, Patni sought the blessings of Shyam Behari Mishra and touched his feet. It may be pointed out that four- time MP from Bilhaur, Shyam Behari was also in the race for the mayoral ticket. But at the eleventh hour Patni emerged as the consensus candidate in order to avoid groupism in the party.

SP candidate Neeraj Chaturvedi arrived at the KMC at around 12.15 p.m. and filed his nomination papers at 12.30. Senior SP leaders who accompanied Chaturvedi included Surendra Mohan Agarwal, Jitendra Bahadur Singh, Nasiruddin, Satish Nigam and Kapil Sabarwal.

Saturday is an auspicious day as per the Hindu calendar and is dedicated to Lord Hanuman.

So it  was the obvious choice for both Patni and Chaturvedi to file their nomination papers. However, the processions and long cavalcades of both the candidates were missing. As a mark of strength, both Patni and Chaturvedi are expected to take out processions on Monday, the last day for filing of nomination papers.

Neeraj Chaturvedi had thrice represented the Generalganj Vidhan Sabha constituency for the BJP.

In the last Vidhan Sabha elections,  he was denied ticket and the BJP fielded Salil Bishnoi. It was only after Chaturvedi was denied ticket by the BJP for the mayoral seat that he joined the SP.

Gaya Prasad Sharma alias Panchal was the third candidate to file his nomination for the mayoral seat on Saturday. He is contesting as an independent candidate.