The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State unit suffered a severe jolt after the nominations of party candidates in the Thalassery and Guruvayur constituencies were rejected during the scrutiny on Saturday.
The nomination papers of NDA candidate and BJP district president N. Haridas in Thalassery were rejected on the ground that Form (A) submitted by Mr. Haridas did not have the signature of BJP president J.P. Nadda.
Mr. Haridas told media that he filed a nomination on Friday at 12 noon. “When the issue was brought to our attention, we got a document online and tried to submit at 3 p.m. However, the RDO refused to accept the document and also the affidavit submitted by them," he said.
Mr. Haridas said he would approach the Supreme Court to get his nomination accepted.
The rejection of nomination, however, has left the BJP in a fix, as the party has a substantial vote share in the constituency, notwithstanding the fact that it is the stronghold of the LDF which has won all the elections since 1977. In the last Assembly election in 2016, BJP candidate V.K. Sajeevan had received 22,125 votes.
The CPI(M) has fielded sitting MLA A.N. Shamseer who defeated UDF candidate A.P. Abdullakutty by a margin of 34,117 votes in 2016.
The nomination paper of the NDA candidate and Mahila Morcha State president Nivedita in Guruvayur was rejected as the affidavit submitted along the nomination did not have signature of the BJP president. As the nomination of the dummy candidate too was incomplete, the BJP is left with no candidate in the constituency.
CPI(M)’s N.K. Akbar and IUML’s K.N.A. Khader are the other main contestants in Guruvayur. Earlier, the nominations of three Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidates were not accepted as they failed to file them on time.
LDF, UDF trade charges
The rejection of the nominations filed by BJP candidates has touched off a row with the UDF and the LDF trading charges about the politics of adjustment for electoral gain. While KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran alleged that it had exposed the deal between the CPI(M) and the BJP, CPI(M) district secretary M.V. Jayarajan termed it the result of a covert understanding between the UDF and the BJP.
Devikulam candidate
Meanwhile, the nomination papers of NDA candidate Dhanalakshmi Marimuthu to the Devikulam Assembly constituency was also rejected by the returning officer on Saturday. Ms. Dhanalakshmi is a nominee of the AIADMK, a coalition partner of the BJP in the NDA. The nomination paper was rejected on the grounds that the candidate had failed to complete Form 26. However, Ms. Marimuthu said the same model of nomination papers were submitted for Devikulam and Udumbanchola constituencies and she would approach the Election Commission.
The NDA has selected Independent candidate S. Ganeshan as its candidate in Devikulam. The NDA camp will start work for Mr. Ganeshan from Sunday.
