Tej Bahadur Yadav's nomination from Varanasi rejected; will move Supreme Court, he says

The nomination of dismissed BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat as a joint candidate of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance has been rejected.

Dismissed BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav with supporters. PTI Photo

NEW DELHI: The nomination of dismissed BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat as a joint candidate of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance has been rejected, sources said on Wednesday. The EC issued a notice to Bahadur on Tuesday for providing incomplete information in his nomination papers. Tej Bahadur had filed nomination as an independent, but was later named by the SP-BSP-RLD alliance as candidate from the seat. He was contesting the elections on the SP symbol. In the first nomination papers, Bahadur had said he was sacked from the BSF, but in the nomination papers filed as the SP-BSP candidate he did not mention that, said District Electoral Officer Surendra Singh. Reacting to the develpoment, Bahadur said his nomination was rejected wrongly. "My nomination has been rejected wrongly. I was asked to produce the evidence at 6.15pm yesterday, we produced the evidence, still my nomination was rejected," ANI quoted Bahadur as saying. We will go to the Supreme Court, he added. "We have been told that we did not produce the evidence that was asked from us before 11 am. Whereas, we had produced the evidence." Bahadur's lawyer Rajesh Gupta said the nomination was declared invalid even after they submitted the "evidence". As soon as the news of the cancellation spread, Samajwadi Party workers gathered at the Collectorate. Later, talking to reporters, District Magistrate Surendra Singh said that Tej Bahadur Yadav had failed to give a satisfactory response to the notice served and hence his nomination was cancelled. Bahadur on Wednesday alleged that the BJP was creating "roadblocks" in his nomination process to "prevent" him from contesting elections against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. "I am being stopped from fighting elections as the 'nakli chowkidar (fake watchman)' of the country is afraid of the 'asli (real) chowkidar'," he alleged. The BSF constable was dismissed in 2017 after he posted a video on Facebook complaining about the poor quality of food provided to the security personnel. Attacking the Modi government, he said: "I was dismissed because I spoke the truth. The parliamentary committee, with Murli Manohar Joshi as its member, submitted the report in Parliament in my favour. Despite that, I was dismissed." Varanasi goes to polls on May 19 in the final phase of the seven-stage general elections.