Of the total 569 sets of nomination papers received for the elections to the Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Corporation, 47 sets of nomination papers were declared invalid by the election authorities after scrutiny on Tuesday.
In a press release, Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad and District Returning Officer Nitesh Patil has said that after scrutiny, nomination papers of 486 candidates were found valid.
The Election Officer has appointed 16 Returning Officers.
Scrutiny of nomination papers began at 11 a.m. and was completed in the evening.
As per Election notification, the candidates can withdraw their nomination papers on August 25 and 26 between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., Mr. Patil has said in the release.
Earlier, with a huge rush on the last day for filing nomination papers for municipal polls, the process extended beyond the scheduled time and continued till late on Monday night. And, in all, 569 nomination papers were filed for the elections to 82 wards.
As there was a huge rush, the candidates who had come before the deadline of 3 p.m. were issued tokens and according to the election authorities, when the last set of nomination papers was received, it was 11 p.m.
As per rule, nomination papers of all candidates who reach the office before 3 p.m. have to be received. And, accordingly, the candidates were issued tokens and it took hours for the officials to verify the set of documents and issue certified copies to the candidates.
On Monday, the last day for filing nomination papers, over 450 sets of nomination papers were filed, Municipal Commissioner Suresh Itnal said.
569 sets
In all, a total of 569 sets of nomination papers have been filed for the elections. The municipal corporation had 67 wards earlier and after delimitation, it has been increased o 82 wards now.
Both the main political parties, the BJP and the Congress, have fielded candidates in all the wards of the municipal corporation. Among the wards, two, No 24 and No 28, have received the highest number of nomination papers (16), while ward number 2 has received just two nomination papers.
Action sought
Meanwhile, Dharwad district Janata Dal (Secular) has sought action against a poll official saying that the official did not receive nomination papers from its candidate contesting from ward number 19.
Addressing presspersons in Dharwad on Tuesday, district president of Janata Dal(S) Gururaj Hunasimarad said that their candidate Haseenabanu Tapalwale had approached the election office to file her nomination papers on Monday.
Although the candidate had reached the office well within the stipulated time, she was made to wait for three hours and when finally her name was announced, Election Officer Prabhakar Angadi returned her nomination papers asking her to get attestation on some of the documents. The candidate had to run from pillar to post to get the work done and when she returned with the attested copies, the officer did not receive them and gave a vague reply, Mr. Hunasimarad said.
He said that action should be taken against the official. The party has also sought video clips of the incident in the election office and based on this evidence, it will approach court seeking justice, he said.
