Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
A total of 452 candidates have been forced out of the election race in the district’s six municipal councils and one nagar panchayat, after their nomination forms were rejected. This includes 430 councillor (member) candidates and 22 candidates for the post of municipal council president, whose dreams of contesting the upcoming local body elections have now been dashed.
Scrutiny of nomination forms began on Tuesday, which led to disputes at several places. Final decisions regarding some municipal councils were taken on Wednesday. Sillod Municipal Council recorded the highest number of rejected nominations (116 numbers).
Elections for the municipal councils of Gangapur, Kannad, Khuldabad, Paithan, Sillod and Vaijapur, along with the Phulambri nagar panchayat, are now just 12 days away. A total of 7 council presidents will be elected directly, along with 160 members.
For these elections, 1,400 nominations were filed, 88 for president and 1,312 for councillor seats. After scrutiny, 22 president nominations and 430 member nominations were declared invalid, bringing the total number of rejected forms to 452.
The last date to withdraw nominations is November 21, while the final list of candidates will be released on November 26, the same day election symbols will be allotted. Hence the actual number of candidates in the fray will be known on next Wednesday. The voting will be done on December 2 and the counting will take place on December 3.
949 candidates still in the race
Out of the 1,312 councillor nominations, 430 were invalid while 882 were declared valid.
For the president posts, 89 nominations were received; 22 were rejected, leaving 67 valid candidates.
In total, 949 candidates remain in the electoral arena.
Breakdown of rejected nominations
Municipality/ Rejected Councillor Forms/ Rejected President Forms
Sillod–116/5
Kannad–47/0
Paithan–112/6
Vaijapur–104/5
Gangapur–14/11
Khultabad–24/15
Phulambri–35/10
Total–430/22