The Election Commission on Wednesday virtually rejected a BJP complaint on using the services of noted lawyer and Congress MP Kapil Sibal, stating that such `petty doubts' should not arise over its neutrality. "The Commission wishes to make it clear that in choosing its doctors and lawyers, the commission looks for effective service and not the political leaning of such persons," a statement by the EC said in New Delhi. The commission's neutrality is grounded on more firm foundations. Such petty doubts should not arise in the minds of major Indian political parties, it added.

Ajit Yadav floats new party

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Ajit Yadav along with his supporters, on Wednesday resigned from the party and formed a new political outfit `Yuva Prahari'. The new party would contest the lone Patna Lok Sabha seat in the coming elections without any electoral alliance. Yadav told reporters in Patna that he would contest as an independent candidate. Yadav had contested the 1998 Lok Sabha elections from Patna on a Samajwadi Party ticket.

Nominations close for first phase

Nominations for the first phase of polling on September 5 in 146 Lok Sabha seats spread over 16 states and Union territories and 355 Assembly seats in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh came to a close on Wednesday evening. Filing of papers for 123 Lok Sabha seats in eight states and 353 Assembly seats in the three states for the second phase of polling on September 11 will continue. Among others, former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, Haryana Pradesh Congress president Bhoopinder Singh Hooda and former Union minister P Chidambaram filed their nominations.

BJP, JD (U) in Karnataka poll pact

The Bharatiya Janata party and the Janata Dal (United) have clinched an alliance and evolved a seat sharing formula for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Karnataka, BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu announced on Wednesday. Talking to newsmen in Bangalore, he said barring three or four, the seats to be contested by the two parties in the Assembly elections had been identified. The BJP will contest 18 Lok Sabha and 129 Assembly seats, while the Janata Dal (U) would put up candidates in 10 Lok Sabha and 95 Assembly constituencies.