AAP’s Meerapur candidate Joginder Singh Bankura on Monday tried to commit self-immolation by pouring kerosene on himself outside the Muzaffarnagar collectorate after his election nomination papers were rejected due to a “critical lapse”. Policemen and others at the collectorate overpowered a former Army Major Subedar, who had opted for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), before he could burn his kerosene-soaked clothes.
The 58-year-old, who filed his nomination papers on January 20, later staged a sit-in outside the collectorate. Meerapur Returning Officer Jayendra Kumar had rejected only one of the 26 nomination papers. Meerapur and 57 other seats will go to polls on February 10 in the first phase of the seven-phased assembly elections.
“This has been done intentionally as I was not even given time to rectify the mistake in my papers. Even after repeated requests, the returning officer did not listen to me. The local administration is acting under pressure from the ruling party and such dictatorship will not be tolerated,” said Bankura.
“There was a critical lapse in the enrollment form which forced us to cancel it. Why should we handle their nomination papers with bias? Are there no other AAP candidates in the district whose papers have been declared valid after scrutiny? asked Kumar.
Later, District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh tried to pacify Bankura.
“The AAP candidate had errors in the first affidavit. They were informed about this and asked to give correct information. But in his second paper, he repeated more mistakes, due to which his documents were declared invalid. It was only at the discretion of the RO who has to follow the norms of the Election Commission,” said Singh. Indian Express on the phone.
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