Jalgaon: A total of 1038 applications were filed for the Jalgaon Municipal Corporation elections. In the scrutiny held on Wednesday, 216 applications from 19 wards were declared invalid, and 826 applications were found valid. In Dhule, out of 622 applications filed, 176 were rejected, and 446 were found valid. Friday is the last date for withdrawal of applications, after which the election picture will become clear.
Meanwhile, during the scrutiny, two applications from Ward 12B were rejected, leaving only one application from BJP's Ujwala Bendale, who was thus elected unopposed, and the BJP opened its account.
On the last day of filing applications for the municipal elections, a staggering 773 candidates filed their applications, putting immense pressure on the administration. The work continued until 2:30 AM. The next day, all the staff were back in the office at 9 AM for the scrutiny of applications.
Due to frequent technical issues raised during the scrutiny, the work continued until late at night. The work continued even today, Thursday. The issue of signatures on the A and B forms became a point of contention during the scrutiny of candidatures.
While it is mandatory for political parties to have the original signature of the party chief on these forms for official candidates, the BJP claimed that many candidates had attached photocopies.
The BJP delegation cited the Election Commission's rules and demanded that these applications with discrepancies be declared invalid. After the BJP brought this serious matter to light, its repercussions were felt across the state.
A picture of confusion in seat allocation is emerging in the municipal elections. The Mahayuti alliance had allocated five seats to the Ajit Pawar group of the Nationalist Congress Party. However, during the scrutiny of applications, it was found that seven candidates had been given AB forms, resulting in these NCP candidates contesting against the BJP in two wards.
There were three female candidates in Ward No. 12B. During the scrutiny of applications, two candidates' applications were found to have discrepancies, and since the application of the third candidate, Ujwala Bendale of the BJP, was deemed valid, she remained the sole candidate. As a result, Ujwala Bendale of the BJP was elected unopposed, and the BJP opened its account.
In Dhule, 622 candidates had filed applications. Of these, 176 applications were rejected, leaving 446 candidates in the electoral fray. In Ward 1A, there were three candidates in the election. Of these, independent candidate Kalpana Dhumal and Sunita Patil of the NCP (Ajit Pawar group) withdrew their nominations, resulting in Ujjwala Ranjit Bhosale of the BJP being elected unopposed. Chief Minister Fadnavis congratulated her over the phone.
