Jharkhand Assembly Election 2019: RJD’s Koderma nominee fails poll scrutiny, BJP’s Kanke candidate cleared

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) faced a setback as nomination of its Koderma candidate Subhash Yadav was cancelled on Tuesday, while nomination of party’s substitute candidate Amitabh Kumar was put on hold.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, heaved a sigh of relief as its contestant from Kanke assembly constituency, Samri Lal, whose candidature was objected to by Congress on technical grounds, was cleared in the scrutiny.

The scrutiny for the third phase of the Jharkhand assembly polls was held on Tuesday. Altogether 17 constituencies will go to polls in the phase, including five seats of Ranchi.

All eyes were, however, on scrutiny of Lal and Yadav as they faced objections for allegedly being residents of other states.

Koderma returning officer Rajeev Verma said RJD candidate Yadav was found to be a voter of Danapur in Bihar during the scrutiny. “As per the rules for assembly elections, a candidate must be a voter of the state where elections are being held. He could be a voter of any assembly constituency of the state,” he said.

RJD had doubt about Yadav’s candidature from the Koderma seat. So, the party fielded substitute candidate Ambitabh Kumar for the seat. But his nomination was put on hold following a complaint from BJP. The ruling party has alleged that party symbol was allotted to both Yadav and Kumar on the same day.

“I have called both parties on Wednesday morning to take a decision on it,” said the returning officer.

Here at Kanke, Congress had raised objection on Lal. Kanke constituency is reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC).

Congress had alleged that Lal was originally a resident of Rajasthan. The party in its press communiqué said, “As per the letter of ministry home affairs, if any person settled in other state for purpose of availing education and livelihood, such person could get benefit of the reservation only in his/her own state.” The party said Lal would not get benefit of reservation in Jharkhand.

Returning officer for Kanke constituency, Manoj Kumar Ranjan, said three members from Congress, led by its Kanke candidate Suresh Kumar Baitha, had lodged complaint against Lal.

“I sought a written complaint from them. Then, I called both the parties at 3pm on Tuesday. Lal was asked to submit required certificate. He produced it and that we rechecked with the circle office. Finally, we approved his nomination papers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate from Barkatha seat, Digambar Kumar Mehta, was arrested on Monday evening. Hazaribag superintendent of police Mayur Patel said, “Mehta was wanted in an old case. We arrested him on Monday and he was sent to jail.” Police arrested him after he filed his nomination papers from the Barkatha seat.