Lok Sabha Elections: Nomination of SP’s Khajuraho candidate rejected

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: The Samajwadi Party’s (SP’s) candidate nomination for the Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh was rejected by the returning officer throughout scrutiny on Friday. The Congress had beforehand allotted the seat to the SP underneath the seat-sharing settlement throughout the opposition’s I.N.D.I.A bloc. The BJP has fielded the sitting MP and its state unit president Vishnu Dutt Sharma from Khajuraho.

“The Panna district collector, who is also the returning officer, rejected the nomination papers of Meera Yadav as she had not signed the `B form’ and also failed to attach a certified copy of the 2023 Assembly elections voters’ list,” a senior official advised reporters. Yadav’s husband Deep Narayan Yadav advised reporters that they might transfer the excessive court docket in opposition to the returning officer’s order.

“The form was verified yesterday after scrutiny. There is a rule that if there is any discrepancy, it is the duty of the returning officer to get it rectified even if the candidate is illiterate. Yesterday, the form was found to be alright. Today, two shortcomings were pointed out. First, the voters’ list attached to the form is not certified or it is old. Signature was supposed to be made at two places, but it was made only in one place,” he added. Yadav additionally claimed that they didn’t get an authorized copy of the voters’ checklist until April 3, and therefore connected a replica that was accessible.

However, this isn’t the primary time a candidate’s nomination paper has been cancelled throughout scrutiny. There have been a number of events when a candidate’s nomination paper was cancelled, leading to a walkover to rival candidates. 

Here’s checklist of previous instances: 

Lok Sabha Polls 2009: Nomination of Congress’ Vidisha candidate cancelled 

The nomination of the Congress candidate from the Vidisha constituency, Rajkumar Patel, was rejected by the Election Commission forward of the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. This made the election of Sushma Swaraj, the then BJP’s candidate from the seat, nearly a walkover. The returning officer had rejected the nomination of Patel on the grounds that the Congress candidate submitted kind ‘A’ after the prescribed time restrict. Swaraj went on to register a large victory garnering nearly 79 per cent of the full votes polled. 

Lok Sabha Polls 2014: BJP candidate’s nomination in Tamil Nadu

The nomination paper of BJP candidate S Gurumurthy from Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris (reserved) constituency was rejected throughout scrutiny forward of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. According to officers, the principles for submitting nominations weren’t complied with by the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate. Even the papers of BJP’s standby candidate D Anbarasan had been rejected. This made issues comparatively simpler for DMK’s A Raja, who gained the election by a margin of 1,04,940 votes. 

Lok Sabha Polls 2019: SP candidate and BSF jawan Tej Bahadur’s nomination from Varanasi

Dismissed BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav’s nomination because the Samajwadi Party candidate in opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency was rejected in 2019. Yadav was served notices by the Varanasi returning officer over discrepancies within the two units of nomination papers submitted by him. Prime Minister Modi had gained the seat for the second time in a row by a margin of 4,79,505 votes. 

Lok Sabha Polls 2024: SP chief Azam Khan’s aides’ nomination from Rampur

The Election Commission rejected the nomination papers of Asim Raja and Abdul Salam, who’re shut aides of senior SP chief Azam Khan and meant to contest from Rampur. Raja and Salam had submitted their papers as candidates from the SP and unbiased, respectively. This occurred after the get together declared Muhibullah Nadwi as its official candidate on the ultimate day of ballot nominations on April 3, amidst appreciable drama. While Muhibullah’s papers had been cleared, roughly 12 candidates had their nominations cancelled by the EC after scrutiny, in response to the Rampur district Justice of the Peace.

Telangana Assembly polls 2023: Congress chief’s nomination from Nagarjunasagar

Ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections in 2023, the Election Commission had rejected the nomination papers of Senior Congress chief Okay Jana Reddy for the Nagarjunasagar constituency. Another Congress chief Kunduru Jayaveer went on to win this seat by a margin of 55,849 votes. 

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