The Congress candidate from Bharthana (Etawah) Ajay Kumar Yadav alias Guddu filed an objection against his rival candidate Mulayam Singh Yadav, who too has filed his nomination from the same constituency. Ajay has accused Mulayam of misleading the Election Commission of India by providing wrong information in his affidavit about his property details. The complaint was, however, rejected by Returning Officer (RO) S N Yadav . Ajay said Mulayam had admitted to possessing property worth Rs 30 crore in his disproportionate assets case in the Supreme Court. But in his nomination papers, he has shown he owns property worth less than Rs 3 crore. Today being the day of scrutiny, Ajay filed this objection against his rival candidate. After accepting the complaint, the returning officer wrote: “The complainant was heard, documents were seen but before the objection could arrive before the RO, the nomination pa per was approved at 11:20 a.m. on March 21. The objection came at 11:55. According to the RO hand book, the officer does not need to go deep into the facts mentioned in the affidavit. Therefore, the objection is baseless and worth rejecting.” However, Ajay objected to the returning officer’s claim. He said objections are accepted from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, during scrutiny. “How can he approve the papers without receiving all objections?” said Ajay. He said he had submitted his objections at 11:05 am. Commenting on the Congress candidate’s move, State Election Officer A K Bishnoi said it was not the duty of the RO to check details given in the affidavit. “It is a matter of inquiry which can be done separately later on, and if any anomaly is found, the candidate is then held responsible for the same. But the matter cannot be decided at the reurning officer level.” Ajay will fax the complaint to the observer posted at Etawah. He also said he would meet the observer tomorrow.
