The nomination papers of Meera Yadav, the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate for the Lok Sabha election from Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho, were rejected by the returning officer, officials said on April 5.
Ms. Yadav was fielded by the SP after replacing Manoj Yadav who was earlier given the ticket to contest the seat, which has been given to the Akhilesh Yadav-led party as part of its seat sharing arrangement with the Congress in the INDIA coalition.
The BJP has fielded its State unit president and sitting MP V.D. Sharma from the seat.
Panna District Collector and returning officer Suresh Kumar Mishra rejected Ms. Yadav’s nomination form as she had not signed at one required place in the form and had not attached a certified voters list of the 2023 Assembly election, an official said.
Reacting sharply on the development, SP national president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that if the candidate had not signed at the required place, why was the form accepted, and demanded judicial inquiry into the matter.
“Cancelling the nomination of India Alliance’s SP candidate Meera Yadav from Khajuraho seat is a blatant murder of democracy. It is being said that if the signatures were not there then why did the inspecting officer take the form. All these are excuses and frustration of the defeated BJP. Those who can cheat in front of the court’s camera, what kind of conspiracies they must be hatching behind the back after getting the form,” Mr. Yadav wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“BJP is liar not only in words but also in actions and is guilty of making the entire administrative system corrupt. There should be a judicial inquiry into this incident as cancelling someone’s nomination is a democratic crime,” he added.
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari claimed that the candidate has a photocopy of the same form she submitted and her signature is in place at the required spots.
“Meera Yadav and her husband was present at the Collector’s office today (Friday) from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. but the Collector was not present there. Is this not a joke with democracy?,” he told reporters, adding that the Congress and the INDIA alliance will oppose the decision strongly.
Ms. Yadav’s husband and former MLA Deep Narayan Yadav said that if there was a mistake in the form, the authorities should have informed them while filing the nomination.
“If there was something wrong, they should have informed us even today [Friday]. We had time till 3:00 p.m. We would have fixed that,” he said.
“There is a rule that is there is a mistake with the form, even if there is an illiterate candidate, the responsibility to ensure that the form is correct lies with the returning officer,” he said.
Mr. Deep Narayan Yadav said that they will approach the courts after the authorities will give them a formal rejection letter.
“We will go till the High Court and the Supreme Court. And if she [Ms. Yadav] is not able to contest, we will sit with senior leaders and will support one of the many other candidates who have filed nominations. We [the INDIA bloc] will definitely contest the polls,” he said.
Khajuraho will go to polls in the second phase on April 26.
