The Election Commission says that all nomination papers are scrutinized but added that personal biases may interfere sometimes.
The office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has declared 350 nomination papers invalid for the upcoming State General Assembly election. Decision on validity of a nomination paper is at the discretion of theCEO.
Members of the Indian National Congress (INC) and Aam Adami Party (AAP) said that Election Commission (EC) is helping the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) by declaring nomination papers of these two parties invalid in order to lessen the competition.
D.K. Shivakumar, President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), made a statement that the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) is asking election officials to cancel nomination papers. Earlier, his nomination papers were declared invalid. However, day before yesterday the EC declared the paper valid. In an interview with Deccan Herald he said that he requested the EC to collect the call register of the CMO’s office and verify his allegations.
Aishwarya Mahadev, General Secretary KPCC, said that cancelling nominations without any merit is against the spirit of the Indian Constitution. She said, “Total of 65 nomination papers were declared invalid. If these papers were declared illegal on merit then D.K. Shivakumar would not have made that comment. Our members submitted nomination papers by following the rules.” She added that despite it, those nominations were declared illegal and that this has caused uncertainty.The members whose papers were declared invalid now want to join BJP.
She said that members have started thinking that if they join BJP jthey will be able to contest. She added, “To avoid uncertainty, D.K. Shivakumar asked his brother to fill an auxiliary form.”
Brijesh KA, spokesperson of AAP said that it is possible that BJP is asking election officials to cancel nomination papers. “It is because they do not want strong contenders to compete with,” he said. He added that they are trying to eliminate competition.
However, Jnanesh H., Deputy CEO, Department of Personal and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) said, “We know the rules and regulations. We are very well versed with the Representation of People’s Act. If we find any discrepancy in nomination papers, we declare them invalid. We follow due process in scrutinizing the nomination papers.”
He added that sometimes theyoften make mistakes in checking nomination papers. “There are more steps involved after the nomination, mistakes can happen at any given level. Sometimes, personal biases do come in while checking nomination papers.” The Representation of the People Act, 1950, provides the legal framework for the conduct of elections in India.
Advocate Mirza Faizan, said that The ECI has the power to cancel nomination papers, but it can only do so under certain circumstances, which are outlined in the Representation of the People Act, 1950. “For example, the ECI can cancel nomination papers if the candidate is found to be ineligible to contest in elections or if the nomination papers are not filled out correctly. The ECI is required to provide reasons for the cancellation of nomination papers.”
“If the allegations made by Shivakumar are true, and the CMO is pressuring election officials to cancel nomination papers without any valid reasons, then this would be a serious violation of the Representation of the People Act, 1950,” Faizan said. He added that this would undermine the integrity of the election process and any such action would be subjected to legal challenge and could result in severe consequences for those involved.
