Election authorities in Maharashtra's Thane district Wednesday rejected nominations of four of the 29 candidates who have filed their papers for the April 29 Lok Sabha elections, an official said.
As per the Election Commission, April 10 was the last date for scrutiny of nominations for the fourth phase. The last date for withdrawal of applications is April 12.
The nominations were rejected for various reasons including incomplete information and not filing of mandatory affidavits.
Interestingly, one of the 29 candidates Vinod Pokharkar had paid the requisite fee of Rs 25,000 while filing his nomination papers in coins. Nomination of Pokharkar, who is contesting as an Independent backed by the Maratha Kranti Morcha, was held valid in the scrutiny, the official told reporters.
"The four nominations that were rejected were found to be incomplete regarding the affidavits and declarations, and improper proposers etc," said Thane constituency Returning Officer (RO) Anil Pawar.
He said the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETBS) would be used for the first time for the "service voters" in the constituency. There are 543 such voters, he added.
Voters having service qualification like members of the Armed Forces, those serving outside his native state; or a person employed under the Government of India, serving outside the country, are classified as service voters.
Pawar further said that special arrangements would be made for counting the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips on the day of counting of votes--May 23.
"As per a court order, five VVPATs from each assembly segment would be taken up for counting," the RO said.
Thane Lok Sabha constituency comprises six assembly segments.
The Shiv Sena has renominated its MP Rajan Vichare from the seat against NCP's Anand Paranjape.
Meanwhile, Pokharkar said he deposited coins which he had taken from voters to pay the requisite charges.
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