The Election Commission (EC) has rejected the petition of the Gujarat unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking disqualification of the Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP), led by the former Chief Minister and ex-BJP leader, Keshubhai Patel, for allegedly violating EC rules.
“We found during the enquiry that there was nothing to prove that the GPP had violated the EC norms regarding submission of Form A and Form B to the officials concerned and the decision to allot a common symbol [cricket bat] as a one-time concession for only this election by the authorities, as the party is contesting from more than 10 per cent of the total number of Assembly seats in the State, is well within the EC rules,” a senior official said here on Wednesday.
The EC’s decision had been duly conveyed to the petitioner, the official said.
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While Form A is the one which is issued by the party informing the EC about the person appointed as the authorised signatory to sign on the nomination letter of a candidate, Form B is the actual nomination letter of the candidate with the authorised person’s signature. “In fact both Form A and Form B can be now given directly to the Returning Officer [RO] and there was no violation in the case of GPP,” the official said.
A registered party
The GPP, which was formed recently after Mr. Patel left the BJP in July this year, is a registered party. Mr. Patel accused the BJP of pressuring the ROs to reject the nomination papers of the GPP candidates.
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Elections in Gujarat are scheduled for December 13 and 17. Votes will be counted on December 20.