Scrutiny of nomination papers for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections resulted in rejection of several candidates across parties due to incomplete documents, errors in forms and non-submission of mandatory certificates, election officials said.
A total of 2,516 nomination papers were submitted until the last day, December 30. As the forms were scrutinized on Wednesday, the forms of candidates from the Congress, BJP, AAP, NCP (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and several independents were rejected.
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As most parties finalized their seat-sharing arrangements and released Forms ‘A’ and ‘B’ (key documents for filing nominations) only in the last two to three days to avoid insurgency, a flurry of nominations was witnessed on 29 and 30 December.
Officials said delays in finalizing candidatures, last-minute documentation, non-submission of caste certificate and incomplete details were among the reasons for rejection.
Officials said candidates whose nominations were rejected would not be allowed to contest the election. They added that the final election picture would be clearer after all legal procedures related to the vetting process are completed.
According to official figures, the majority of rejected nominations belonged to independent candidates, although major parties were also affected.
In the case of the NCP (SP), the nomination filed by its candidate Bharat Danani from ward 109 was rejected on scrutiny.
One nomination of a BSP candidate was rejected in F-South ward (wards 200 to 206) as the petitioner appeared twice on the form.
The nomination of Congress candidate Manoj Kanojiya from ward 226 could not be accepted as his caste certificate was not submitted, officials said. AAP candidate Navnath Lalge, who filed his nomination from ward 226, also suffered a setback on the same ground.
Both BJP candidates from Wards 211 and 212 saw their nominations rejected due to incomplete documents and other deficiencies, officials said.
In Ward 109, the six nominations that were rejected were by independents. All 12 nominations rejected in G-South wards (193 to 199) were independents, while several others were rejected in T Division (wards 103 to 108), L Ward (wards 163, 171 and 175) and other areas.
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Five nominations were made in Ward 226. While the Congress and AAP candidates were disqualified for not submitting caste certificates, the nominations of BJP candidate Makarand Narvekar and two independents were found valid.
There are 227 constituencies in the BMC. The metropolis has 1,03,44,315 voters, of which 55,16,707 are male and 48,26,509 are female. The number of “Other” voters is 1,099, according to officials.
In the last civic polls in 2017, the undivided Shiv Sena won 84 seats. Of these winners, 46 have now gone to Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena. As many as 16 former corporators from other parties, including Congress, NCP and SP, have also joined the Shiv Sena.
BJP won 82 seats last time. In the past eight years, six former corporators from other parties joined it.
In 2017, Congress had 31 seats, followed by NCP (9), MNS (7), SP (6), AIMIM (2) and six others.
Elections to 29 municipal councils including the BMC will be held on January 15 and the votes will be counted the next day. The nomination process began on December 23 and ended on December 30, with January 2 being the last date for withdrawing nominations. The final list of candidates will be published on January 3.
