MCD polls: 43% of nominations rejected as scrutiny process continues today

An official said the scrutiny continued till 10pm on Wednesday and pending applications were being taken up on Thursday

The State Election Commission has rejected over 43% of the nominations filed for 250 wards ahead of the December 4 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls even as the scrutiny process continued. An official said the scrutiny continued till 10pm on Wednesday and pending applications were being taken up on Thursday.

AAP supporters cheer for their candidates as they arrive to file their nominations. (ANI)

Returning officers scrutinised 2520 of 2585 nominations until Wednesday while 65 were pending. As many as 1,115 nominations (43.13%) were rejected. In its status report, the commission said 1405 nominations have been accepted.

A second official said the rejected papers were either incomplete or did not have the required proposers count. Some candidates did not file the affidavits while others filed multiple nominations. Non-submission of caste certificates was among other reasons for the rejections.

Monday was the last date for filing the nominations. As many as 2021 candidates from 15 political parties have filed them. “The updates on the scrutiny process are still being received from the returning officers and ward-wise data will take some more time for compilation,” a third official said.

High nomination rejection rates are common in municipal elections. In the 2017 MCD polls, 1796 of 4605 nominations were rejected. Parties field backup candidates to manage rejections at the scrutiny level.

A fourth official said nominations can be rejected due to wrongful declarations or undeclared criminal cases. “In many cases, candidates file double or dummy nominations as a backup for any technical mistake, and one of these is also rejected.”

Bharatiya Janata Party candidates filed 654 nominations, 258 of them were found valid and 375 were rejected. The nominations of 258 of 728 Aam Admi Party candidates were found valid and 449 were rejected. For Congress, 405 nominations were filed out and 242 of them were found to be valid.