A day after the rejection of Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Meera Yadav’s nomination form Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh, the Congress, SP and other INDIA bloc parties accused the Returning Officer, Panna Collector, of not being present on his seat for three hours while the SP candidate kept waiting to correct her nomination form.

In a meeting of INDIA bloc parties held at the MP Congress headquarters here on Saturday, they also decided to not give a walkover to BJP candidate Vishnu Dutt Sharma on the seat at any cost. Sharma, MP BJP Chief, is the sitting Lok Sabha member from the seat, which he had won by more than 4.5 lakh votes in 2019.

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MP Congress Chief Jitu Patwari said the IINDIA bloc parties have decided to give their full support to one of the candidates who are still in the fray on the seat and they would contest against the BJP with all their might.

It was, however, not yet decided who that candidate would be, and the opposition leader said the decision would be made soon.

Jitu Patwari alleged that Meera Yadav was present in the Collector’s office from 12 noon on 5 April, but the Collector did not arrive. Patwari claimed that the SP candidate even made several phone calls to the Collector but he did not respond.

SP Madhya Pradesh Chief Manoj Yadav accused the officials and the BJP of lying on the matter. He claimed that the SP candidate and other party leaders kept waiting at the Collector’s office to submit a third set of her nomination form but the Collector did not come to the office for three hours.

Leaders of the Madhya Pradesh units of Congress, SP, AAP and other alliance partners attended the meeting.

The Returning Officer had rejected SP candidate Meera Deep Narayan Yadav’s nomination form on 5 April, the day of scrutiny, on account of failing to sign at one of the required places and submitting an old voters’ list copy.