E-Paper
Lok Sabha Elections 2019: AAP blames BJP for disqualification of its GB Nagar candidate’s nomination
Sanjeev Nigam, an AAP leader said, the party’s GB Nagar candidate was disqualified under pressure from ruling BJP leaders and the party will seek justice and file a plea in the high court shortly.
After Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Shweta Sharma’s nomination was cancelled on technical grounds on Tuesday, the Gautam Budh Nagar district unit of the party is going to take a decision on which party to support in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
According to the law, a candidate has an option to file a plea in the Allahabad High Court or go to Election Commission of India (EC) but the process can be started only after the elections are over.
“It means our party is left without a candidate in Gautam Buddh Nagar seat because our candidate’s nomination is rejected. Our future course of action in terms of who we support would be decided after consultation with senior leaders. We are very sad because the administration has disqualified our nomination under pressure from ruling BJP leaders. We will seek justice and file a plea in the high court shortly,” Sanjeev Nigam, district media in charge of AAP, said.
Nigam said after rejection of her nomination, Sharma is in shock and upset and so are their party workers. The AAP has fielded candidates from Gautam Budh Nagar, Saharanpur and Aligarh in the first phase of elections, and now it has lost its chance to fight elections from one seat out of the three.
As per the returning officer of the district, the nomination papers the AAP candidate had filed was factually incorrect and failed to fulfil technical requirements. But AAP workers said the administration did not cooperate with them at all.
“There were around 20 persons with the candidate during nomination filing. But they allowed only five persons inside the district collectorate. After submitting the papers, when we came to know about some technical issues, they asked us to provide additional proposers. But they asked us to come again on Tuesday at 11am. At 11am on Tuesday, they did not listen and rejected nomination. This is wrong and we will fight against this unlawful act,” Nigam said.
In the mean time, the Bharatiya Janata Party said that AAP deliberately filed incorrect nomination so that they can support Congress at this seat. However, the AAP rejected this claim.
“We were very serious to fight at this seat. But the administration has foiled our plans,” Nigam added.
Returning Officer BN Singh said they had issued an objection letter after the AAP candidate filed nomination.
“Since AAP is neither recognised as national party by EC nor as a state party in Uttar Pradesh, the candidate is required to provide 10 proposers instead of one. We issued an objection letter and asked them to provide eight proposers. They provided incorrect facts. We have all recordings of the nomination filing process and acted as per law,” BN Singh said.
A disappointed party worker, Manoj Kumar, said, “The AAP candidate should have taken help from legal experts before filing nomination papers to fill papers correctly.”
