As many as 11 candidates withdrew their nomination on the last day of withdrawal of nomination of urban body election in Raipur on Friday.
With this, the total candidates in fray for the post of the Mayor of Raipur Municipal Corporation is reduced to 28. The officials said that nomination papers of 39 candidates were found correct after scrutiny of nomination papers for the post of Mayor of Raipur. Out of these 11 candidates withdrew their name on Friday. These include Mukesh Kumar Chopra, Anand Chopkar, Ravi Kumar Shrivas, Hitesh Vyas, Masiuddin, Riyaz Khan, Alamdar Hussain, Pramod Dau Baghel, Mahesh Harpal, Reshma Bano and Arif Khan. A large number of candidates for the post of Corporator from different wards of RMC also withdrew their names on the last day. After scrutiny of nomination papers, the nomination papers of 623 candidates were found correct.
The officials further said that the Mayoral candidates will have to maintain record of the expenditure from the date of nomination till declaration of results. The candidate can maintain the expenditure record either by himself or with help of his election agent. They said that the Mayoral candidates will have to submit the details of expenditure with the officers notified by the State Election Commission within 30 days of declaration of election results. If a candidate fails to submit the expenditure details as per rules or fails to give adequate and satisfactory reasons for this, he can be declared disqualified for contesting election for a period of five years.
If a candidate moves out of contest or extends support to any other candidate or is not contesting the election seriously, he will have to maintain the election expenditure account and present it on time. For candidates who have withdrawn their nomination need not to submit the expenditure details but they will have to maintain expenditure accounts till the date of withdrawal of nomination and present it for inspection if demanded, the officials said.