PONDA: MGP candidate Pandurang (Deepak) Dhavalikar heaved a sigh of relief as he remained in the fray in Shiroda after returning officer Kedar Naik rejected two objections filed by BJP and Forward Democratic Labour Party challenging the validity of his nomination and questioning the existence of the MGP.
Arguments on the points started at 11am and ended at 6pm. Objections were filed by BJP’s Subash Shirodkar, FDLP’s Harischandra Naik.
The returning officer in his order stated that he received two nominations forms from the MGP candidate. During scrutiny the first nomination failed to provide mandatory information as to the political party and criminal cases of conviction.
An objection was raised to the second nomination form by Shirodkar’s counsel who submitted
that Part II Form A has been signed by the working president and not by president or secretary as mentioned in the Form A of The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968. He stated that on this ground itself the nomination form of the MGP candidate has to be rejected.
Countering this, Dhavalikar’s counsel Nandakumar Naik argued that as per the party constitution, the working president enjoys equal powers with the president and hence the objection should be dismissed. He placed on record a copy of the party constitution and also communication in this regard made to CEO as per mandatory provisions.
With respect to objection that the MGP general body has not resolved to authorise Dhavalikar and Narayan Sawanth to give any communication with regard to intimation of names of a candidate, the returning officer in his order stated that he is of the view that this is not the forum to adjudicate on this issue as at the time of scrutiny of the RO is only required to decide as to whether the candidates fulfill the criteria laid down in the handbook of the RO and rejection can be done only as per Para 6.10 of the handbook. He said there is no merit in objection raised by Shirodkar’s counsel and hence it stands cancelled.
Naik of FDLP said MGP stood merged with the BJP from March 27, 2019. He said that three MGP MLAs were elected but 2/3 of the MGP’s Legislative Party merged with the BJP and consequentially MGP does not stand to exist. In response to this, Dhavalikar stated that he has written to ECI highlighting the facts but the reply is till awaited.
The RO in his order said that till the date of filing of nomination by the MGP candidate there has been no communication given by ECI that MGP is no longer a State Recognized Party but is only a Registered Party. If in case of merger if MGP stood de-recognised the ECI would have issued extraordinary notification, which has not been the case. Further as per provision of anti-defection law merger of 2/3 faction does not mean death of parent party.
