Sacked BSF jawan Tej Bahadur's nomination from Varanasi rejected

Yadav was served notices on Tuesday by the Varanasi returning officer over "discrepancies" in the two sets of nomination papers submitted by him. 

Amid high drama, dismissed Border Security Force jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav's nomination as the Samajwadi Party candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency was on Wednesday rejected by poll authorities.

The former BSF constable had hit the headlines after his video of the alleged poor quality of food being served to the jawans had gone viral on social media.

He was subsequently dismissed.

Yadav was served notices on Tuesday by the Varanasi returning officer over "discrepancies" in the two sets of nomination papers submitted by him.

In the first set of papers on April 24, he had mentioned that he was dismissed from the BSF.

On April 29 he submitted a second set of papers -- this time as the SP nominee for the Lok Sabha seat -- but did not give out this information.

He was also required to submit a no-objection certificate from the BSF, giving reasons for his dismissal.

District Magistrate Surendra Singh referred to Section 9 and Section 33 of The Representation of People Act and said that Yadav's nomination was not accepted as he "could not furnish the required documents" in the stipulated time.

Section 9 of the act bars anybody who has been dismissed from a central or state government job within the last five years for disloyalty to the nation or corruption.

Section 33 requires the candidate to submit a certificate from the Election Commission that he/she has not been dismissed on these charges in the last five years.

Addressing a battery of reporters at the Collectorate Office, the DM claimed that Yadav and his team were given "enough time" but "they could not furnish the documents".

A dejected Yadav, however, claimed that he had submitted the required documents to the poll authorities.

"I had raised my voice about what I had felt was wrong when I was with the BSF. I decided to come to Benaras to assert that voice for justice. If there was a problem with my nomination, why did they not tell me when I had filed (my papers) as an independent candidate," he lamented.

He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of resorting to "dictatorial steps" to stop him from fighting elections.

"My grandfather was with Azad Hind Fauj, I am a son of a farmer and served as as a jawan... now I can't even fight elections. This is dictatorship," he said.

His counsel Rajesh Gupta said, "We will approach the Supreme Court".

Earlier in the day, state SP spokesperson Manoj Rai Dhupchandi and other party workers and supporters waited in the scorching heat for their hearing at the Collectorate, even as some admirers took selfies with an anxious Yadav.

Sporting a camouflage t-shirt and a pair of leather slippers, Yadav stood for hours outside the DEO office amid high security deployment in the campus.

As the mercury soared, so did the political temperature with a large number of SP supporters as well as locals huddling around the barricades and raising chants of 'Tej Bahadur bhaiyya ki jai', waiting eagerly to know Yadav's fate.

Srikant Yadav (23), a science graduate and part of Yadav's campaign team, said that a makeshift poll office had been set up next to Maduadih station and the youngsters of Varanasi were "very excited" about the former BSF constable fighting the elections.

Prior to his nomination being rejected, Yadav had launched an attack on Modi saying, "Country's 'nakli chowkidar' is afraid of 'asli chowkidar', a jawan, so he and his party is trying to prevent me from fighting this election."

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