Chennai, August 02: The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate for the Bargur Assembly constituency has been allowed to contest as an independent following a re-scrutiny exercise.
The DMDK had appealed to the Chief Electoral Officer to reconsider the rejection of V. Chandran’s nomination. Besides that of Mr. Chandran, the candidatures of S. Elango (Bargur) and S. Raja (Srivaikuntam) were re-scrutinised as per the Election Commission’s instructions.
Explaining the reasons behind denying the party symbol to Mr. Chandran, Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said the DMDK candidate had failed to submit Form A with his nomination papers, though he had submitted Form B.
According to the Election Commission rules, submission of Form A is necessary even in cases where Form B is signed by the president or general secretary of a political party himself as it would enable the returning officer to know that no one else is authorised to sign Form B.
Mr. Chandran’s nomination was rejected on Thursday.
67 candidates in fray
At the end of the period for withdrawing nominations, as many as 67 candidates are in the fray in the five Assembly constituencies that go to the polls on August 18.
–Agencies