Nominations of 4 BJP candidates rejected by SEC

New Delhi: In a major set back to the BJP, the State Election Commission has rejected nominations of four of its candidates for the upcoming civic elections in Delhi. The Congress also landed up in an embarrassing situation with the poll body rejecting nomination of its Dwarka candidate.

With the commission’s rejection of nominations of four of the candidates, the saffron party along with its ally Shiromani Akali Dal will now be contesting on 268 of the 272 municipal wards. Since the BJP and Congress would for the first time be facing a three cornered contest, the two parties are leaving no stones unturned to see that the AAP which is contesting on all the wards does not repeat its Assembly poll performance by winning 67 of the 70 seats.

The State Election Commission has rejected nomination of BJP candidates Monika Chhabra from Kishan Ganj in North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Ravinder Negi from Vinod Nagar in the East Delhi Municipal Corporation and two candidates, Sanju Bala (Bapraula) and Jamal Haidar (Abul Fazal Enclave) in South Delhi Municipal Corporation. “Nomination of BJP’s covering candidates in these wards have been also rejected that means no one will contest on BJP ticket in these seats. The Commission also rejected nomination of Congress candidate Sudha Sharma from Dwarka in the SDMC,” said a source.

Nomination of BJP candidate from Khayala ward, Babli Chandela, who was barred by the poll body to contest election, has also been cancelled but the party has retained the seat with Ms Sunita Yadav, who filed the nomination as covering candidate. Sources said that questions have been raised on nomination of more BJP candidates, which are overseen by party’s lawyers.

The Delhi BJP, meanwhile, has decided the conduct an enquiry to find out the reason behind the rejection of nominations of its candidates. “One can find several reasons for the rejection of nomination papers of our candidate but to find out the exact reason will conduct an enquiry,” said Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari.

Differences have come out in open in the Delhi BJP with the rejected nomination of its official candidate. Party leaders are questioning delay in the release of second list just few hours before closing of nomination when the names were finalised in the morning. “Party president Amit Shah approved the final list of 106 candidate at around 10.30, but the incomplete list was released around 3.30 pm. Who is responsible for this? In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India, it took nearly four hours for BJP type 100 odd names,” said a party source.

Sources said that operations of getting the names typed and announcing the final list of candidates were entrusted to party state in-charge Shyam Jaju, co-incharge Tarun Chug and state general secretary Sidharthan. “There are allegations that some names were changed during these four hours that led to these goof ups. The responsibilities of these senior and important leaders is to co-ordinate smooth execution of party decision without this embracement. Questions should be asked from the legal team as to why the nomination were rejected,” he added.