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Vajpayee to file nomination today

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will file his nomination papers today, the opening day of the nominations for the October 3 polling for the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency, according to party sources in New Delhi.

In a quest for a hat-trick, Vajpayee was earlier scheduled to file his papers on September 11 but as per the new schedule, he would be filing nominations by noon today. The last date of the nominations for this constituency is September 14.

There seems to be no formidable challenge to Vajpayee this time, although the Congress party has yet to announce its candidate against the 24-parties National Democratic Alliance leader. The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded a little-known Muslim leader to contest against Vajpayee, while the Congress party and the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav are trying to rope in Professor Roop Rekha Verma, former acting vice-chancellor of Lucknow University.

As it is, reports from Lucknow suggest that Prof Verma has resisted entering active politics. Prof Verma, head of the department of philosophy in the university, is well-known for her uprightness and secular views.

In the 1996 election, Vajpayee had defeated film star Raj Babbar, who had contested as the Samajwadi Party nominee while in the last Lok Sabha poll, the veteran BJP leader was pitted against Muzaffar Ali, the director of noted films like Umrao Jaan and Gaman .

Lucknow is the second biggest constituency in Uttar Pradesh after Hapur. Its electorate comprises a total of 1552,065 voters.

UNI

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