Bhopal:

The opposition Indian bloc in Madhya Pradesh suffered a tactical setback when the Samajwadi Party’s alliance candidate nomination was rejected for not providing mandatory documents to the Election Commission of India.

Former MP Meera Yadav won the eponymous Niwari assembly seat in the district on a Samajwadi Party ticket but also contested elections from the same constituency three times in a row fail. The Samajwadi Party had nominated Manoj Yadav but later changed the candidate to Ms Yadav.

She filed papers as the Samajwadi Party candidate from Khajuraho on Thursday, which was the last date for filing nominations for the second phase, April 26.

Ms. Yadav hails from an influential and wealthy Samajwadi Party family in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district. She is the only Samajwadi Party candidate in Madhya Pradesh.

The BJP has fielded state unit chief and MP VD Sharma from the seat where Ms Yadav is trying to contest.

Ms Yadav’s husband Deep Narayan Yadav, a two-time Samajwadi Party MP in Uttar Pradesh, said the returning officer accepted her documents after verifying them.

Narayan Yadav said, “On Thursday, there was no problem, but today we were informed that there were two issues, including non-submission of certified copies of updated voters’ lists and missing candidates at one point in the form signature.”

“After receiving the written copy of the rejection order from the Panna district election officer, we will move the High Court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court,” he said.

The last date for submission of nominations for the second phase is April 4; the review of the forms took place on Friday.

The Khajuraho seat holds great political significance as the BJP president and sitting MP is the ruling party’s candidate there. He won the seat in 2019, beating his nearest rival by 492,000 votes.

Akhilesh Yadav, president of the Samajwadi Party and former chief minister of the United People’s Party, called the rejection of Ms Yadav’s paper a “murder of democracy”.

“It is said that the form was not duly signed. If that is the case, then why did the polling officials on Thursday accept the form in the first place? The BJP is guilty of corrupting the entire administration. It is a democratic crime to reject anyone’s nomination form, We demand a judicial inquiry,” Akhilesh Yadav posted on the microblogging site X.

The cancellation of the nomination of Meera Yadav, the Samajwadi Party candidate from the Khajuraho seat in the Indian Union, is a blatant murder of democracy. It is said that if there is no signature, then why should the reviewer take the form? These are the excuses and frustrations of the failed BJP. Who can cheat in front of court cameras…

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) April 5, 2024

VD Sharma said that as far as Khajuraho is concerned, the BJP likes to contest elections. “I don’t understand what is happening to the opposition candidates. I love the electoral battle,” VD Sharma said.