"Missing Signature" Leads To Exit Of INDIA Bloc's Madhya Pradesh Candidate

In a tactical setback to the opposition INDIA bloc in Madhya Pradesh, the nomination of the alliance candidate from the Samajwadi Party has been rejected over not giving the mandatory documents to the Election Commission of India.

Former MLA Meera Yadav, who won from Niwari assembly seat in the district with the same name on a Samajwadi Party ticket, had also lost three consecutive elections from the same constituency. The Samajwadi Party had nominated Manoj Yadav, but later changed the candidate to Ms Yadav.

She filed her papers as a Samajwadi Party candidate from Khajuraho on Thursday - the last date of filing nominations for the second phase i.e. April 26.

Ms Yadav is from an influential and wealthy Samajwadi Party family from Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi district. She was the only Samajwadi Party candidate in Madhya Pradesh.

The BJP has fielded state unit chief and MP VD Sharma from the seat where Ms Yadav tried to contest.

Ms Yadav's husband Deep Narayan Yadav, a two-time Samajwadi Party MLA from UP, said the returning officer had accepted her papers after verifying them.

"On Thursday, it was okayed, but today two gaps have been informed to us, including non-submission of certified copy of the updated voter list and that the signature of the candidate was missing at one place in the form," Narayan Yadav said.

"We will go to the high court and if necessary, the Supreme Court after getting the written copy of the rejection order from the Panna district election officer," he said.

The last date of filing nomination for the second phase was April 4; the scrutiny of the forms happened on Friday.

The Khajuraho seat is politically significant, as the state BJP chief and the current MP is the ruling party's candidate there. He won the seat in 2019 by 4.92 lakh votes against his nearest rival.

Samajwadi Party chief and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav called the rejection of Ms Yadav's papers "murder of democracy".

"It's being said the form wasn't duly signed. if it was the matter, then why was that form accepted in the first place by poll officers on Thursday? The BJP is guilty of turning the entire administrative machinery corrupt. Rejecting anyone's nomination form is a democratic crime, we demand a judicial probe," Akhilesh Yadav posted on the microblogging website X.

VD Sharma said as far as Khajuraho is concerned, the BJP enjoys contesting elections. "I don't understand what happened with the Opposition candidate. I enjoy electoral battles," VD Sharma said.