Maharashtra Elections 2024: Former Minister Anees Ahmed returns to Congress after failing to submit candidacy

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Former Maharashtra minister Anees Ahmed returned to the Congress on Saturday after narrowly missing the deadline to submit his nomination as a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) candidate, PTI reported.

AICC in-charge Ramesh Chennithala welcomed Ahmed back to the group, which he had quit last week to contest the upcoming Maharashtra Elections 2024 as a VBA candidate from the Nagpur Central seat.

There was a lot of commotion at the Nagpur collectorate on October 29, as Ahmed was only a few minutes late to file his nomination, PTI cited.

According to PTI, Ahmed, a loyalist of the Gandhi family who had previously won the Nagpur Central seat thrice on a Congress ticket, stuck around till 8 pm on Tuesday, which was the last day of filling nominations, but his form was not accepted.

The deadline for filling nominations for the November 20 Maharashtra Elections was till 3 pm.

According to Ahmed, he had to he had to deal with various obstacles like road closure, vehicular restrictions and security protocols at the office of the Returning Officer (RO), PTI cited.

He claimed he arrived at the collectorate before the 3 pm deadline, and Ahmed's associates were sitting there with his token number, but he was not allowed to enter the RO's office.

Earlier, Ahmed's resignation from the Congress had raised concerns in the party that his candidature may divide the Muslim votes and damage its chances.

This time, the Congress chose not to nominate Ahmed from the Nagpur Central constituency, which has a sizable Muslim population. Instead, they nominated Bunty Shelke, who was defeated by the BJP in 2019 by a close margin.

Elections for the 288 assembly seat in Maharashtra will be held on November 20, while the vote counting will take place on November 23.

The election officials have said that the nomination papers of 7,994 candidates were filed across the 288 assembly constituencies in Maharashtra.

On the other hand, the nomination papers of 921 candidates were found invalid, the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said in a statement on Thursday, reported PTI.

The process of filing nominations by candidates began on October 22 and ended on October 29.

(With inputs from PTI)