Gambhir for Jaitley

Amritsar, April 5: Gautam Gambhir today campaigned for senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar.

The cricketer attended a roadshow in the city and urged the electorate to vote for Jaitley who, he said, is a “good administrator and very nice human being”. He said the BJP leader will make efforts towards improving the sports infrastructure and will bring Amritsar on the international sports map.

Jaitley is locked in a fierce contest with former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh in Amritsar, which votes on April 30.

Cong U-turn

Mumbai: The Congress withdrew its candidate from the Palghar constituency in Thane district on Saturday, the last day for filing the nominations for the third phase of polling, reports our special correspondent.

Rajendra Gavit was pitted against Baliram Jadhav of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, the sitting MP, and the BJP’s Chintaman Vanaga. The official reason given by the Congress was that it did not want the division of votes to help the BJP. A source, however, said that the threat of a revolt by the party’s former MP and district president Damoo Shingda led to the decision.

Shingda was keen on contesting from Palghar but Gavit had been fielded on chief minister Prithviraj Chavan’s insistence. Palghar votes on April 24.

Rakhi aides

Mumbai: Rakhi Sawant’s Rastriya Aam Party has fielded two more candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. R.P. Singh will contest from Varanasi and Salman Hashmi from Thane. Rakhi, the vice-president of the party, will contest from Mumbai North West. She is pitted against sitting Congress MP Gurudas Kamat, Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar, actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar of the MNS, and the AAP’s Mayank Gandhi. Mumbai votes on April 24.

Form glitch

Chennai: P. Chidambaram, accompanying son Karti who filed his nominations from Sivaganga on Saturday, pointed out a printing error in the form. The Tamil part of the form mentioned “assembly” instead of “Lok Sabha constituency”. In a separate incident, Tamil Nadu’s chief electoral officer has said that door-to-door campaigning after 10pm was prohibited. The state votes on April 24.