Returning Officer for the Krishnagiri Assembly constituency A. Noor Mohamed announced on Thursday that R. Syed Giyaz Ul Haq (originally a dummy candidate for Hazeena Syed) will be the official Congress candidate for the constituency.
The Congress' hand symbol was allotted to him and an identity card handed over to him, V. Arun Roy, District Election Officer and District Collector told The Hindu .
After the final list of candidates was released on Wednesday, the last day for the withdrawal of nominations, there was confusion over the candidature of Mr. Haq. Ms. Syed withdrew her nomination as the Congress candidate on Wednesday and election officials said that her husband could now contest on hand symbol.
But questions were raised by some rebel candidates of the Congress as to how Mr. Haq's papers were still valid in spite of his wife's nomination having been cleared during the scrutiny.
A clarification was then sought by district election officials from the Election Commission.
Mr. Roy received a clarification from the Election Commission that there was a procedural error in declaring Mr. Haq as the candidate.
The initial response from the Returning Officer was that the alternative candidate's nomination also could be rejected.
But, after examining the case again, the official decided to clear the nomination of Mr. Haq on Thursday.
Even though the Returning Officer committed a procedural error during the scrutiny of the nominations and in announcing the list of valid candidates, his would be the final decision, Mr. Roy added.
