Two jailed MLAs in Uttar Pradesh -- Mukhtar Ansari of the BSP and Hari Om Yadav of the SP -- have withdrawn their applications filed in the Allahabad High Court seeking permission to vote in the Rajya Sabha biennial polls, scheduled for Friday.
The move came after the Election Commission (EC) granted permission to the two legislators to participate in the vote, which will decide 10 members for the Upper House of Parliament.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded nine candidates while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have fielded one candidate each.
SP's Yadav is lodged in Firozabad jail while Ansari is in Banda jail for the past 10 months.
A senior BSP leader and counsel for the two legislators, Satish Chandra Mishra, told the bench of Justice Prashant Kumar and Justice Rajat Roy that they wanted to withdraw the petition.
--IANS
md/nir/bg