Poll body rejecting weak candidates

Says Independent candidate from New Delhi seat, alleging his nomination was cancelled because there is a shortage of voting machines

Poll body rejecting weak candidates

Says Independent candidate from New Delhi seat, alleging his nomination was cancelled because there is a shortage of voting machines

Sanjay Kumar, a newspaper vendor was preparing to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the New Delhi

constituency. But on Monday, his netagiri dreams were shattered, allegedly because there was a "minor mistake" in his nomination papers.

Kumar alleges that many not-so-prominent Independent candidates like him were voted out by the Election Commission (EC) because of the insufficient number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). "What kind of a democracy is this? Common men like me have not been allowed to contest the elections. They could have just deleted the word Jam Nagar from my nomination form. But they did not do so and instead cancelled my nomination," said Kumar.

Interestingly, among the 16 candidates whose nominations were cancelled by the chief electoral office, many were low-profile Independents, including a tea vendor and a retired government official.

Kumar also said that when he had gone to file his nomination, the staff at the polling office had said that there were a large number of candidates and not enough EVMs. "The officials had hinted that they would shortlist the number of candidates," said Kumar.

Meanwhile, the chief electoral office denied Kumar's allegations. "The allegations are baseless. We have enough EVMs to accommodate all candidates. Canceling a candidate's nomination because of a shortage of EVMs cannot happen," said an official from the chief electoral office, wishing anonymity because he was not authorized to speak.

On April 20, the MiD Day had reported how the Election Commission is mulling the use of ballot papers because there is a shortage of EVMs.

An EVM unit can be used only if there are 16 candidates in fray and the election officials cannot have more than four machines at a polling station. If the number of candidates exceeds 64,u00a0 ballot paper is used for voting.

On April 4, MiD DAY was the first to report about Sanjay Kumar's bid from the New Delhi constituency.
After taking loans of around Rs 50,000 from his friends and NGOs, Kumar had bought a kurta pajama and sandals to match the neta's look.

No votes for them
Apart from Sanjay Kumar, there are 55 other candidates from Delhi whose nomination papers were rejected by the Election Commission. A total of 222 candidates were in fray from seven parliamentary segments in Delhi. With the CEO rejecting the candidature of 56 candidates, now there are 166 names. Delhi votes on May 7.

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