In a surprise development on Thursday the JMM backed candidate for mayoral poll, Antu Tirkey, lost the opportunity to contest the election. Tirkey’s nomination was rejected on grounds of insufficient documents and failure to submit the remaining document before the scrutiny process started. Nomination of another candidate, Rose Pravin Tirkey, was also rejected.
The development means that the JMM will have to watch the contest from sidelines as other party backed candidates compete against to become the next Mayor.
The post of Mayor of Ranchi is reserved seat for ST category candidate hence only a person belonging to the category can file nomination for the coveted post of Mayor of Ranchi Municipal Corporation. Antu Tirkey had not submitted certificate corroborating community he belonged to alongwith nomination papers. He had subsequently given an undertaking to submit the requisite certificate on the day of the scrutiny, June 5. The JMM backed candidate had filed nomination on Wednesday.
“We had given him (Antu) time till 11 am on Thursday and even waited till 3 pm to get the documents. But neither he nor any representative came. So, we rejected his nomination,” said ADM Naxal-cum-Electoral Officer for mayoral election, Ravi Shankar Verma.
Surprisingly, for the first time ever a candidate has to face the inconvenience usually faced by a voter during election. Rose Pravin Tirkey could not contest election because of a discrepancy in the voters’ list. Rose’s name and photograph in the voters list did not match which led to her disqualification from the race.
As many as 14 candidates have been in the poll fray post scrutiny which means that now only one EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) will be used at each booth at 901 polling centres in the election.