Three candidates fielded by the BJP from Gurgaon, Sohna and Pataudi assembly constituencies in Gurugram district have never attended college, according to the affidavits they submitted at the time of nomination. Also, two Congress party candidates from Sohna and Badshahpur have also not attended college, as per their affidavits.
A total of 47 candidates are now in the fray for four assembly seats in the upcoming Assembly elections in gurugram as 15 nominations were withdrawn on Monday. BJP candidates Mukesh Sharma from Gurgaon seat has only 12th pass, Tejpal Tanwar from Sohna seat in his affidavit that his highest educational qualification is class 10 from a govt school in Badshahpur and Bimla Chaudhary from Pataudi assembly constituency is also Metric pass from an open school. The trio candidate have never attended college.
Likewise, Congress candidate Vardhan Yadav from Badshahpur seat has 12th pass from DPS School and Rohtash Khatna from Sohna seat has only passed Class 9, which he completed in 1973-74 at a govt school in Rithoj village.
The main contest on the Gurgaon seat between BJP's Mukesh Sharma who is a dropped out after passing Class 12, Mohit Grover of Congress went overseas to study MBA. While analysis of Gurgaon seat candidate affidavits found that six of them have master's degrees, five are graduates, and the remaining did not pursue higher education. Mukesh Sharma a native of Dundahera village here in Gurgaon is the co-convenor of Haryana BJP's sports cell.
Sharma's key rival and Congress candidate Mohit Grover (31) has a postgraduate degree in business management from the International Management Institute of Brussels, Belgium. Grover's affidavit showed that he got the degree in 2014.
Naveen Goyal who quits BJP over denial of ticket and contesting the elections as an Independent from Gurgaon seat is a graduate from the University of Rohtak. Among others candidates Ankit Alag of Jan Sewak Kranti Party holds an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) and Independent candidate Akshat Gait is also an MBA postgraduate from Management Development Institute (MDI) in the city. Another Independent, Narender Kumar, is a retired post-graduate teacher (PGT).
Sanjay Lal, an Independent who is fighting the election on behalf of a group of RWAs. Lal has a master's degree in history from the University of Mumbai. He is an entrepreneur and consultant.
However, there is no law that the candidates have higher education qualification to contest and assembly elections but people said parties should consider and check candidates past before selecting a candidate for an urban seat. Residents have expressed concern over the candidates' educational qualifications.
"The Gurgaon city also known is cyber hub which also have offices of several IT companies, startup, corporate sectors and export houses. The city has also represented several international events here in the city. If a candidate who is not even a graduate how he can represent the city in future. Parties should check qualification before finalising candidates ticket," Nishant Verma, an IT professional said. "Education is important in life no doubt. BJP and Congress has fielded candidates which having never been to college and studied only upto school level which is quite shocking. Gurgaon district is much developed then other districts in Haryana here educated candidates should represent assembly constituencies," said Yug Vyas, a resident.
