AAP's GBN candidate fails to find proposers, nomination rejected
G B Nagar: In a major set back to Aam Aadmi party (AAP), the nomination of their candidate for Gautam Budh Nagar Lok Sabha seat was disqualified on Tuesday. Official cited the reason to be technical errors in the nomination form. However, the AAP leaders alleged the ruling party in state to have used their powers illegally to pressurise the DM cancel the nominations.
A K Singh, AAP district spokesperson, Gautam Buddh Nagar said that rejection was done under pressure from ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP).
"The Bhartiya Janta Party was afraid of our candidate so they chose to eliminate her by wrongfully using their powers. They pressurised the District Magistrate to cancel our nomination which amounts to denying our democratic rights," said Singh.
Shweta Sharma, AAP candidate from Gautam Buddh Nagar said that she was not given time to correct the errors on the scrutiny day.
"As when the Magistrate highlighted some mistakes in the form, we asked just half an hour to correct all the errors. However, the Magistrate didn't listen to us and cancelled the form. It looks like he was under some pressure," said Sharma.
Meanwhile, the returning officer, District Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar, B N Singh said that AAP is not recognised as a national or state party in Uttar Pradesh and thus, has to provide the name of 10 proposers but had submitted the name of only one.
"Ten mandatory proposers are required for any candidate who is not from a recognised national or regional party in a state. However, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is not a recognised regional party in
Uttar Pradesh neither it is
recognised as a national party by the Election Commission. If it was recognised in UP only one proposer was required in that case. The AAP candidate came up with none of the required documents while she had only one proposer. The decision to reject her nomination was taken on this basis," said Singh.
However, A K Singh claimed that the Magistrate didn't listen to any of their plea and cancelled their nominations.
"If time was given to us, we could have fulfilled all the formalities. We will not keep quiet, while the matter is already reported to the election Commission. We will take legal advice and will take the matter to court" said Singh.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is in power in adjoining Delhi and had last
week announced fielding three candidates in Uttar Pradesh, but with cancellation of Sharma's nomination, it will be fighting only on the other two — Aligarh and Saharanpur.
In 2014, the Aam Aadmi Party had fielded Kishan Pal Singh as its candidate from this seat who got 32,358 votes, a 2.70 per cent share of the total votes polled.
Gautam Buddh Nagar goes to polls on April
11 during the first leg of the seven-phased general elections.
