Kathua, Mar 28: The Returning Officer (RO) for the 4-Udhampur Parliamentary Constituency, Rakesh Minhas, Thursday conducted the scrutiny of nomination papers submitted by candidates for the upcoming 18th parliamentary elections.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that the process of the scrutiny was held at the office of Returning Officer here at the DC Office complex.
After thorough scrutiny, the nomination forms of 12 candidates namely Amit Kumar from Bahujan Samaj Party, Balwan Singh from J&K National Panthers Party (Bhim), Jitendra Singh from Bharatiya Janata Party, Chaudhary Lal Singh from Congress, Manoj Kumar from Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal besides Pankaj Sharma, Rajesh Manchanda, Sachin Gupta, Swarn Veer Singh Jaral, Ghulam Muhammad Saroori, Muhammad Ali Gujjar and Mehraj Din as independent candidates were found validly nominated candidates.
The candidature of three candidates Prem Nath from Bharatiya Janata Party, Tilak Raj of Bahujan Samaj Party, and Divya Suraj Partap Singh from Congress becomes null and void as they were the covering candidates and due to formal consideration and approval of the candidature of the main candidates as validly nominated candidates from the respective parties.
The scrutiny was held in the presence of the General Observer for 4-Udhampur, PC Dheeraj Kumar, contesting candidates and representatives of political parties.
As per the issued election notification, the candidates can withdraw their nomination before 3 pm on March 30, 2024, in the office of Returning Officer.
The constituency is scheduled for elections in the first phase of the General Elections to be held on April 19.