BHOPAL : The elections to the Scouts and Guides state body were postponed on Thursday for an indefinite period after the Central Observer seized the nomination papers of all candidates, following complaints by Bhanwar Sharma, one of the candidates for the post of State Commissioner.
The process of submission of nominations had begun on January 8. The papers were subsequently scrutinised and the final list of candidates after withdrawals was put up on the notice board. The Central Observer, however, cancelled the entire process and ordered a probe.
The complainant Bhanwar Sharma and others alleged that the state election officer had hatched a controversy to get BJP-backed candidates elected unopposed by either rejecting the nominations of other candidates or by claiming that they had withdrawn from the contest.
Talking to media persons, Bhanwar Sharma alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted to hijack the elections and was out to get only its candidates declared elected.
They said that as part of the controversy, JR Sharma, the state election officer, had announced that only three candidates were left in the fray after scrutiny and withdrawals. These three candidates were: Ashok Argal for President, MoS for Higher and School Education Deepak Joshi for vice-president and Minister for School Education Paras Jain for the chief commissioner’s post, thus paving the way for their unopposed election.
Bhanwar Sharma alleged that the election officer had announced that he (Bhanwar) had withdrawn his nomination but when he sought a copy of his withdrawal request, the election officer refused to provide it. Dilip Mehta, a candidate for vice-president’s post alleged that the nomination forms which were submitted were not even opened by the election officer.
They had reported the matter to the national council after which, KP Mishra was appointed as election observer.
The observer reached the office and seized all the nomination forms. He said that the matter will be enquired into, guilty would be identified and punished and only then fresh schedule of the elections would be announced.
