Vadodara: Two independents, including BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastava’s son, for the VadodaraMunicipal Corporation (VMC) polls found themselves at the receiving end of the three-child rule as their candidatures were rejected on Monday.
Unruly scenes were witnessed at the office of the returning officer in the district panchayat office after the nomination of Shrivastava’s son Dipak was turned down.
Dipak was a BJP councillor in the last term, but he was not given a ticket this time as BJP decided not to choose relatives of leaders.The decision did not go down well with Madhu and Dipak, who claimed that exceptions were made to the policy. Madhu wanted Dipak to contest from ward 15 and make him support BJP later.
BJP candidate from ward 15 Ashish Joshi, who is a close confidante of ward 15 corporator in the last term and Dabhoi BJP MLA Shailesh Mehta, raised objection to Dipak’s candidature saying that he had three children. Apart from a battery of lawyers of the BJP, prominent criminal lawyer Hitesh Gupta argued forJoshi.
Gupta told TOI that there was ample evidence to prove that Dipak had three children. He said that Dipak had given one child in adoption to none other than his father Madhu to ensure he officially had only two children.
In wake of Joshi’s complaint, the election officer of ward 15 asked the birth and death registrar to come with the records. The records revealed that Dipak was the father of three children born in 2012, 2017 and 2020. Of these, the name ofthe father of the daughter born in 2017 was changed to that of Madhu Shrivastava after he adopted the girl child.
When it was evident that Dipak would not contest the polls, his supporters created a ruckus and a glass of the partition of the cabin of the election officer was broken. Madhu put up a brave face after the order and said that his son would work for the party outside ward 15.
Another independentcandidate from ward 9, Viren Rami, who was a corporator from Rashtriya SamajPaksha (RSP), but fell out with RSP strongman Rajesh Ayare, also lost his candidature due to the three-child norm. Rami had one child from his first wife, who was also holding custody of the child after divorce. He remarried and had two children from his second wife.
The issue was raised before the election officer, who sought a clarification from Rami who admitted that he had three children.“The election officer explained that while my case may be genuine, others may undergo divorce just to contest polls if they had three children,” he said.