Ten nomination papers submitted by seven Independent candidates were rejected on Thursday by the Returning Officer for Hassan Lok Sabha constituency. Among the persons rejected, one submitted blank nomination papers.
Assistant Returning Officer H.N. Gopala Krishna told presspersons that a major reason for rejection of papers was discrepancies in furnishing details of proposers. Independent candidates need to have 10 proposers who have to be voters in the constituency. The constituency and part number of each proposer, submitted by the candidate along with the nomination papers, has to match with the voters’ list.
T.J. Abraham, who filed nomination papers in order to question Ashok Kheny’s candidature on the grounds of his citizenship in case he (Kheny) submitted his papers, had not signed part 3 of the nomination papers.
Mr. Kheny had earlier told the media that he would contest from Hassan. H.J. Usha, a BE graduate, got her papers rejected as her affidavit was incomplete. She had submitted an incomplete affidavit even after the Returning Officer had issued a notice.
Another candidate, Shivanand, submitted blank nomination papers.
Papers submitted by Kempaiah, K.R. Gangadharappa, M. Ramaiah and Ho.Thi. Huchchappa were rejected as there were mistakes in the details of the proposers. In the case of M. Ramaiah, the details of one of the 10 proposers did not match. Mr. Gopalakrishna said 23 people had submitted 44 sets of papers till Wednesday. Of them, papers of 16 candidates had been considered valid. The candidates had time till 3 p.m. on Saturday to withdraw the papers.
V. Anbukkumar, Returning Officer, scrutinised the papers in the presence of Election Observer Raghuveer Shrivastava.
