Rumours haunt Congress candidates in Surat all day

With the election commission finding errors in nominations filed by the candidates from the Congress party, the candidates were busy running from one corner to the other at the district collector's office on Monday.

Tense that their nominations might get cancelled, they made frantic calls to the state and city leadership asking for help.

However, their prayers were heard when the state election commission decided to accept their forms, provided the errors were related only to the party mandate.

The BJP and the Congress candidates had gathered at the district collector office with different intentions, since early in the morning. While BJP tried a bid to render all 114 nominations filed by the Congress candidates for SMC elections cancelled, the Congress on the other hand, attempted to save its face by preventing the proposed cancellation of forms.

Tensions prevailed all day, with both the parties trying to take advantage of the situation. In the afternoon, the BJP submitted a memorandum to the district collector asking him to cancel the nominations of the Congress candidates. The memorandum stated that while filing the nominations, the party did not follow the legal procedures.

This created fear among the Congress candidates.  Many of them lost hopes of fighting the elections. Meanwhile, the rumours of nominations being cancelled further demoralized the Congress candidates and many of them left the premises, thinking that they had lost the chance to fight the elections. To raise hopes among candidates, the city Congress president Shambu Prajapati promised the candidates that they would take up the issue before high court, and later, before the Supreme Court.

"The allegations that party has not provided Ka and Kha forms to candidates are rubbish. We have completed all legal formalities while filing nominations," Prajapati said.

Congress leaders and workers went on a hunger strike in front of the collector's office to protest against the proposed move of cancelling nominations of party candidates. Despite the high-profile drama, the fate of the candidates remained undecided till 6 in the evening. At 6:30 pm, a message was passed by the state election commission stating that powers have been granted to returning officer, to take appropriate decision in the case.