Jamshedpur: There will be 15 candidates altogether in the fray for election as the Member of Parliament from Jamshedpur constituency, East Singhbhum district administration declared on Thursday.
The district returning officer-cum-deputy commissioner of East Singhbhum, Dr Amitabh Kaushal said out of the 17 candidates, two, Fazal Khan of Trinamool Congress and Mithilesh Das of Bahujan Mukti Party, had failed to file their nomination paper correctly. The two nomination forms were cancelled following verification by the returning officer. Other nominations were passed in the verification, the DC said.
�Trinamool Congress does not have recognition of the Election Commission of India in Jharkhand. Hence the candidate should have deposited his nomination form with 10 proposers. But he submitted the form with the name of only one proposer. Besides, he had failed to deposit several other mandatory documents within the prescribed time. Hence his form was cancelled,� said Dr Kaushal.
Khan had filed his nomination paper around 2.54 pm on 26th March. Form A and Form B were left unfilled by him, sources said.
The DC further said that Mithilesh Das had not submitted the affidavit. He also did not give information regarding the election booth where he has his name and the serial number assigned to him as a voter. This led to the cancellation of his form, the DC said.
Dr Kaushal further said that the 17 candidates had submitted a total of 35 forms. The candidates whose forms were accepted after verification include Vidyut Varan Mahato of BJP, Niroop Mohanty of JMM, Daman Chandra Bhagat of BSP, Angad Mahato of Amra Bangali, Kumar Chandra Mardi of Aam Admi Party, Josai Mardi of Rashtriya Deshaj Party, DG Rasja of Samajwadi Party, Sitaram Tudu of SUCI, Sheikh Akhiruddin of Jharkhand Party (Naren) and independent candidates Upendra Karmakar, Om Prakash Anand, Dinesh Mahato, Mobin Khan and Hari Oraon.
Asked if the district administration had taken note of the apparent violation of Model Code of Conduct by Chief Minister Hemant Soren who had arrived at the DC office with 19 vehicles, Dr Kaushal said, �So far no political party has complained in this regard. We have come to know about this from mediapersons. Action will be taken only after a probe into the reports.�
The DC said the last date for withdrawal of nomination is 29th March. The symbols of all candidates will be allotted on 29th March. He said a total of 31,523 voters had been added to the voters� list in the district through the campaign to fill up Form 6 launched by the district administration following instructions of the Election Commission.
The DC said a total of six cases of violation of Model Code of Conduct had been reported in the district so far. Notices have been given in all cases. A probe is on in three to four cases, he said.