Candidates bring crowds to nomination-filing centres

Surat: On the last day of filing of nominations for Phase-1 of assembly elections in the state, a huge rush was seen in and outside the offices of election officers in the city on Monday, as leaders from different political parties arrived to complete the procedure.
Most of the candidates came with a large number of their supporters. The collector’s office and other offices designated for nomination filing remained crowded and noisy as the supporters shouted slogans for the candidates and their political parties. Because of heavy rush at the district collector’s office in Athwalines, the main road remained blocked for several hours. The traffic movement was affected since morning and police had a tough time in managing the traffic. Police barricaded a few roads and intersections around the collectorate to manage the traffic flow and rallies.
Many candidates arrived at the offices at the same time and it created further chaos on the road. Their supporters were not allowed inside the government offices and were asked to wait outside.
Those who filed nominations on Monday included Kumar alias Kishore Kanani, Harsh Sanghavi, Sandip Desai, Praful Togadia, Alpesh Kathiriya and Dharmik Malaviya.
The candidates arrived at the offices at noon with plans to file papers at 12.39pm, which was considered to be auspicious. However, most of them missed this time because of the crowd and as more than one leader arrived at the same time.