Ghaziabad: 14 candidates left in fray after nomination scrutiny stage

Till Thursday -- the last date for nomination filing -- a total of 42 forms were submitted by different prospective candidates

Ghaziabad: Only 14 candidates were left in the fray on Friday following scrutiny of the nominations after the district election officials rejected 22 of the total 42 nominations filed for the Ghaziabad parliamentary seat.

Candidates at the Collectorate officer on Friday -- the last day of taking back nominations. (HT Photo)

The officials said that now they will not need to attach an additional ballot unit with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) as the accepted nominations can be accommodated in a single ballot unit with an EVM.

The Ghaziabad district goes to polls on April 26. Till Thursday -- the last date for nomination filing -- a total of 42 forms were submitted by different prospective candidates.

“Only 20 forms belonging to 14 candidates were found acceptable. The others were rejected as there were issues/mistakes found related to nomination forms, affidavits and even for approvers. So, 14 candidates overall are left in fray,” said Ranvijay Singh, additional district magistrate (ADM).

Those featured among the accepted nominations are Dolly Sharma from the Congress, Atul Garg from the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Thakur Nandkishor Pundhir from the Bahujan Samaj Party, independents and also some candidates from the lesser-known parties.

“The last date for withdrawal of nominations is April 8. If anyone of the present list prefers to withdraw nomination, the list of contesting candidates will also be shortened. Otherwise, if no one withdraws we will finally have 14 contesting candidates with NOTA as the fifteenth option on the ballot unit attached to the EVM,” the ADM added.

On Thursday night, the Ghaziabad officials had released a list of 42 nominations and uploaded them on the website of the Election Commission of India till late Friday morning.

“My nomination figures in the list of rejected nominations. I will go through the issues that led to rejection. If need be, I will submit a complaint to ECI and thereafter move court in case I feel that rejection was avoidable,” said Shamsher Rana, an independent who filed nomination.

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.