The nomination papers filed by the veteran Congress leader Vidya Stokes for contesting from the Theog constituency in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections on November 9 were rejected by the Returning Officer on Tuesday on technical grounds.
The nomination of the 89-year-old leader was rejected on the ground that another candidate, Deepak Rathore, had filed his nomination papers as a Congress candidate for the same seat
ahead of Ms. Stokes, officials said.
Mr. Rathore and Ms. Stokes had authorisation letters from the Congress, they said.
During scrutiny of nomination papers, objection was voiced regarding Ms. Stokes’s nomination and the Returning Officer gave both candidates time till 4 p.m. to settle the issue. However, nothing tangible came out and he rejected her papers, the officials said.
She had initially decided not to contest the election for the 11 time and had vacated the Theog seat for Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. But the CM decided to contest from Arki, following which Ms. Stokes reportedly pushed the name of Vijay Pal Khachi. The Congress high command, on its part, gave ticket to Mr. Rathore and finally she decided to enter the fray. Ms. Stokes is an eight-time MLA.