The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, asked the Election Commission (EC) to examine by Thursday the plea of former Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav against the rejection of his nomination from the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. The Samajwadi Party had fielded Tej Bahadur as its candidate against PM Modi from the constituency.
Tej Bahadur had approached the Supreme Court on Monday, May 1 to contest the rejection of his nomination from the Varanasi Lok Sabha Constituency. He is being represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan.
The Election Commission had, on Wednesday, May 1 rejected Tej Bahadur’s nomination. He was fielded by Akhilesh Yadav’s party from the Varanasi Lok Sabha Constituency opposite Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Following the rejection, Tej Bahadur had said that he will move the Supreme Court to challenge the rejection.
“I am being stopped from fighting elections as the ‘nakli chowkidar (fake watchman)’ of the country is afraid of the ‘asli (real) chowkidar’,” he had said.
Tej Bahadur had alleged that the BJP was creating roadblocks in his nomination process to prevent him from contesting elections against the Prime Minister.
Uttar Pradesh SP spokesperson Manoj Rai Dhupchandi alleged that Tej Bahadur was being targeted as he represented the aspirations and angst of farmers and jawans and claimed the BJP got scared of him (Tej Bahadur) as he is getting support from the people in Varanasi.
The Samajwadi Party had fielded Yadav from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi after dropping Shalini Yadav, who had earlier filed her nomination from the seat.
Varanasi is going to the polls in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 19. Results will be declared on May 23.