26 nominations filed for Ghaziabad seat, scrutiny today

26 nominations filed for Ghaziabad Lok Sabha seat; scrutiny on Friday. Total expected to be 42. Deadline for withdrawal of nominations is April 8.

At the close of filing of nominations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on Thursday evening, Ghaziabad received a total of 26 nominations, as per the election commission website, and these will be scrutinised on Friday.

Officials said candidates generally file multiple forms in order to avoid rejection of a single form due to some minor mistake or error. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

However, district officials said a total of 42 nominations have been filed for the Ghaziabad seat and they are still in the process of uploading them to the ECI website.

Ghaziabad goes to polls on April 26, along with Gautam Budh Nagar, in the second phase of elections.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 33 contestants filed their nominations in Ghaziabad and 18 were accepted. The final list of contesting candidates was 12, district officials said.

“The final list of contesting candidates will be known at the end of April 8, the last date for withdrawal of nominations,” said Ranvijay Singh, additional district magistrate (executive).

The 2019 parliamentary seat was retained by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate gen VK Singh (retired).

This time, BJP has fielded sitting MLA Atul Garg, while Congress has field Dolly Sharma and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Thakur Nandkishor Pundhir. All three have filed their nominations, district officials said.

Apart from candidates from major political parties, several independents and candidates from lesser known parties are also in the fray.

Among them was 30-year-old Avdhesh Kumar, a resident of Vijay Nagar and a law student, who earns a living by coaching school students.

He has filed his nomination as an independent candidate.

“Initially, I was part of a small party and we approached major political parties to get our party aligned with them. Most of them did not even deign to give us their attention. So, I decided to contest as an independent even though I know my chances of winning are minimal. Still, I will use this platform to raise issues affecting my city,” Kumar said.

Monika Gautam, 25, from Rashtriya Suraksha Party, also filed her nomination. A resident of Ambedkar Nagar, Gautam is pursuing her final year in Bachelor of Education degree.

“I belong to the SC category and people have a different outlook towards my people and I want to change that. I believe that people should get free education and health from the state. I filed my nomination against candidates from major political parties. But, I don’t mind giving them a bit of challenge,” Gautam said.

Officials said several probables have filed multiple nominations. Officials said candidates generally file multiple forms in order to avoid rejection of a single form due to some minor mistake or error.

Shailendra Bhatia, ADM, said, “We have sufficient numbers of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and in case the list of final contesting candidates crosses 15, they will have to put in an additional ballot unit in each booth,” Bhatia said.