Swaraj India national president Yogendra Yadav on Thursday sat on a silent protest outside the State Election Commission (SEC) office at Kashmere Gate along with 24 candidates whose nominations for the upcoming municipal elections were cancelled for “frivolous” reasons.
Mr. Yadav and the 24 candidates met the State Election Commissioner in the morning to discuss reasons for disqualifications.
‘Human error’
After the meeting, Mr. Yadav and the candidates sat in protest outside the SEC office claiming that the reason given for disqualification was merely “human error”.
“Rule 22 (4) of MCD poll: nomination paper not to be rejected for a defect that is not ‘substantial’. Yet 20 SI candidates rejected on clerical errors [sic],” he tweeted.
Giving examples of errors in the cancelled nomination forms, the party said one candidate forgot to write ‘I am a woman, not a man’ after selecting her gender on the form, while another signed on all but one pages of the form. The party said of the 24 candidates whose nominations were cancelled by the SEC, 13 are women. This has discouraged the party’s primary fight to give prominence to women and youth in these elections.
“We went to the SEC office and showed the officials their own rule. They had to agree that our concerns were genuine. After agreeing to the mistakes of their Returning Officers, they assured us that they will ask all their Returning Officers to review the orders,” the party said in an official statement.
‘Unjust orders’
Mr. Yadav also tweeted that they respect the SEC and hope for justice. “Have assured SEC that we shall respect this institution even if their orders are unjust and discriminatory [sic],” Mr. Yadav’s tweeted.
