Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 24: Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, AK Sahu, the Returning Officer for Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat today rejected nomination papers of five candidates leaving 19 contestants in fray for April 10 election. Five more candidates including National Panthers Party (NPP) supremo Prof Bhim Singh and JKDF nominee Anil Gupta joined the electoral battle for Udhampur-Doda constituency taking total number of candidates, who have filed their nominations for the seat so far, to nine.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad would file his nomination papers for Udhampur-Doda seat as Congress candidate before Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, Jatinder Singh, who is Returning Officer for the seat, tomorrow. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, his Cabinet colleagues and several Congress legislators and office bearers would accompany Mr Azad in filing nomination papers.
Mr Azad and Mr Abdullah would hold road show in Kathua after filing the nomination paper. The NC and Congress, two coalition partners in the Government, were contesting three seats each in the State as part of the seat sharing arrangement.
PDP candidate for Udhampur-Doda seat, Arshad Malik would also file his nomination papers tomorrow.
Meanwhile, five more candidates today joined the battle of ballots for Udhampur-Doda constituency, taking number of total contestants to nine.
They included NPP supremo Prof Bhim Singh. JKDF candidate, Anil Gupta, the son of BJP rebel MLA Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, who had represented Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary constituency thrice in 1996, 1998 and 1999, Prem Nath, covering candidate of BJP, Ranjit Singh, Independent and Sham Lal of All J&K Kissan Mazdoor Party.
All four NPP legislators including Harshdev Singh, Balwant Singh Mankotia, Yashpal Kundal and Syed Rafiq Shah apart from other party leaders and workers accompanied Prof Bhim Singh while filing his nomination papers. A NPP handout said this was seventh attempt of Prof Bhim Singh to enter Lok Sabha. He has failed in his all previous six attempts. Prof Singh hoped that he would succeed in entering Lok Sabha in his seventh attempt as he claimed that his BJP and Congress rivals have “no acceptability or credibility’’.
Prof Gupta, who has been expelled by the BJP, accompanied his son Anil Gupta in filing nomination papers.
BJP candidate for Udhampur-Doda constituency Dr Jitendera Singh had filed nomination papers on Saturday. Apart from Dr Singh, three other candidates, who have already filed their nomination papers for Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary seat included Amrit Varsha of Samajwadi Party, Dharam Paul Balgotra of BSP and Madhu Bala Balgotra, wife of Dharam Paul and covering candidate of the BSP.
March 26 is last date for filing of nomination papers for Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary constituency.
Meanwhile, Returning Officer for Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat, AK Sahu (the Deputy Commissioner, Jammu) today rejected nomination papers of five candidates during scrutiny of the documents today.
The contestants, whose papers were rejected, are Ved Mahajan (covering candidate of PDP), Kavinder Gupta (covering candidate of BJP), Ritu Devi (covering candidate of BSP), Girdhari Lal Bhagat, candidate of Bharatiya Bahujan Party (BBP) and Dr Karan Kumar Gupta, Independent.
The nominations were rejected due to lack of proper documents.
However, nomination of Girdhari Lal Bhagat’s son Mehar Manav Bhagat, who had filed papers as covering candidate of the BBP, has been accepted.
With rejection of five nomination papers, 19 candidates have been left in the fray for Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat though March 26 is last date for withdrawal of nomination papers.
The candidates left in the fray included Jugal Kishore Sharma (BJP), Madan Lal Sharma (Congress), Yash Pal Sharma (PDP), Ashok Bhagat (BSP), Hari Chand Jhalmeria (NPP), Labha Ram Gandhi of Refugee United Front, Gursagar Singh Isher of Socialist Democratic Party, Mehar Manav Bhagat (BBP), Subash Chander of Kissan Mazdoor Party, Bahadur Singh Choudhary of Samajwadi Party, Vijay Kumar of Aam Mazdoor Kissan Vikas Party, Abdul Majeed Chouhan, a resident of Mendhar, Mohammad Abbas Khan of Digwar, Perseen Singh of Digwar, Poonch, Mohammad Imtiyaz of Manjakote, Rajouri, Ashok Kumar of Maheshpura, Bakshi Nagar, Satish Poonchi of Durga Nagar, Muthi, Raj Kumar and Nirmal Singh, all Independents.
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