Varanasi poll: As 33 nominations are rejected, eight applicants allege that the process was rigged

Sunil Kumar Bind, 37, spent six days at the office of S Rajalingam, the returning officer and district magistrate of Varanasi. A municipal contractor who comes from a family of boatmen, he wanted to contest the Lok Sabha election against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Six days later, Rajalingam handed him a rejection slip.

Bind was not alone. Of the 41 people who had filed nominations, 33 were rejected, leaving Varanasi with its least competitive electoral fray in decades. Compared to 26 candidates in 2019 and 42 in 2014, there are only seven candidates contesting elections in Varanasi this time.

Eight applicants, including those whose nominations were accepted, told Scroll that this was by design.

They allege that initially, Rajalingam and his assistant returning officer processed nominations at a snail’s pace. Later, they spent hours going through the affidavits filed by at least 14 independent candidates linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

On May 14, the last day to file nominations, the returning officer accepted 27 applications. But by evening, his office informed the applicants – including Bind – that their affidavits had problems. For instance, many of them had not been administered oaths, a crucial prerequisite for nomination. It is prescribed by Article 84A of...

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