Lucknow, Aug 14 (IANS): Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, on Wednesday filed his nomination papers as a BJP candidate for the by-poll to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.

The seat fell vacant after the resignation of Neeraj Shekhar who was the Samajwadi Party member at that time. After resigning from Rajya Sabha, Shekhar had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and he is set to get elected unopposed as the saffron party has absolute majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The term of the seat is up to November 25, 2020.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, state BJP President Swatantra Dev Singh along with several UP ministers and BJP leaders were present during the filing of the nomination papers.

Surprisingly, a couple of senior Samajwadi Party leaders, including MLA Ravi Shankar Singh Pappu and former MLC C.P. Chandra, were also present to support Neeraj Shekhar.

Wednesday was the last date for filing nominations for the Rajya Sabha by-poll.

The scrutiny of papers would be done on August 16 and the last date for withdrawal is August 19.