The Election Commission of India (ECI) has disqualified five candidates, who contested the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections.

Divulging the details, Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C. on Wednesday said these candidates had not submitted their election expenses as per section 78 of Representation of the People Act, 1951 to the Commission within the specified timeframe, thus rendering them ineligible to contest elections for the next three years under Section 10 A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

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He said that these five candidates — three from Sangrur district and one candidate each from Mansa and Faridkot districts — have been disqualified by an order issued by the ECI.

Shakti Kumar Gupta and Jaswinder Singh contested from the Dhuri Assembly constituency.

Sanmukh Singh Mokha contested from the Sunam Assembly constituency.

Similarly, Gurucharan Singh Sangha, who contested from the Faridkot Assembly constituency, was declared disqualified.

Harbhagwan Sharma Bikhi, a resident of Mansa district, who contested from the Sunam Assembly seat, has also been disqualified for the next three years by the ECI.

As per the ECI, under section 78 of The Representation of the People Act, 1951 every contesting candidate shall lodge an account of his election expenses with the District Election Officer (DEO) of the concerned constituency within 30 days of the date from the date of declaration of results.

In August, the ECI disqualified six candidates, all from Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, who contested the Assembly polls in 2022 for failing to submit the expenditure incurred during the campaign. Since they had not submitted their election expenses as per Section 78 of the R P. Act to the ECI within the specified time frame, they were held ineligible to contest for the next three years under Section 10A of the Act. The candidates who were disqualified were — Sucha Singh, Prem Singh, Hardip Singh, Sunny, Karandeep Singh and Gurpreet Singh.

The ECI disqualified seven candidates in March who had contested the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections. They had not submitted their election expenses as per the rules, rendering them ineligible to contest elections for the next three years.