BHOPAL: Ahead of by-elections in Madhya Pradesh, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s nomination as the BJP candidate was cleared by the Returning Officer on Tuesday, while the nominations of two independent candidates were rejected.
The nominations of the two candidates—Congress-backed social activist Rajkumar Lohani and Kante Sayanna, a man from Telangana—were rejected due to incomplete form submission. Puri is the lone candidate left in the fray and is set to be elected unopposed after the last date of withdrawal of nominations (by 3 pm on November 5).
The state Congress had raised multiple objections to Puri’s nomination, questioning the completeness and validity of documents submitted, but the Returning Officer, after examining the objections, cleared his nomination.
Reacting to the development, deputy leader of opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, Hemant Katare and first-time Bhopal-North’s Congress MLA Atif Aqeel, said that they will move the MP High Court to challenge Puri’s nomination. He had earlier claimed that Puri’s papers contained over 100 deficiencies. Among the issues flagged by the party were the alleged omission of his wife’s name.