Congress candidate Stokes' nomination rejected

Election authorities on Tuesday rejected the nomination papers of senior Congress leader Vidya Stokes for Theog seat in the November 9 Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections due to "discrepancies" in documents, officials said.

Stokes, 89, would have been the oldest contestant if she had remained in the electoral fray. She represented Theog in the outgoing House.

"There were errors in Form B and (hence) her nomination was rejected," an official told IANS.

Form B is a declaration that a candidate has a particular party's mandate to contest the election.

Now, Deepak Rathore will be the Congress candidate from Theog against Bharatiya Janta Party's Rakesh Verma and Communist Party of India-Marxist's Rakesh Singha.

Stokes, the Irrigation and Public Health Minister and eight-time legislator, on Monday filed her nomination from Theog in Shimla district.

Earlier, the Congress had cleared Deepak Rathore's name for Theog after a lot of deliberations on Sunday. He too filed his nomination from Theog on Monday as Stokes' covering candidate.

Stokes, a long-time Indian hockey administrator and daughter-in-law of American missionary Satyanand Stokes, had earlier declined to re-contest from Theog as Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had expressed a desire to contest the seat.

Later, the Chief Minister decided to contest from Arki in Solan district. Following this development, Stokes expressed her desire to re-contest from the seat she represents.

--IANS

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