Anees Ahmed misses nomination deadline

 

 

High drama was witnessed on Tuesday afternoon in Collectorate as Dr Anees Ahmed, former Minister and three-time Congress MLA, who recently joined Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi, could not reach in time to file his nomination from Nagpur Central. It has raised several eyebrows as an experienced person like Dr Ahmed knows the full procedure of filing nomination. Expressing his displeasure over not giving ticket to a person from Muslim community from Nagpur Central by Congress, Dr Ahmed had resigned from his party. He was welcomed by Adv Prakash Ambedkar, founder of VBA. Ambedkar gave Ahmed VBA ticket for Nagpur Central constituency. Tuesday was the last day of filing of nomination papers. Everyone in Collectorate premises, where the application receipt centre was situated, was awaiting Dr Ahmed’s arrival. By 2.45 pm, everyone thought Ahmed won’t turn up. Suddenly a car entered in the premises and Dr Ahmed got down from the car. It was 3.01 pm.

 

The deadline for filing of application form is 3 pm. The Returning Officer of the centre Vishal Kumar Meshram did not allow Dr Ahmed to enter inside the centre. Dr Ahmed insisted that since he reached in time he should be permitted to file the nomination papers. Dr Ahmed’s candidature was important as it would have helped Pravin Datke, the BJP candidate for the same constituency. Majority of Muslims could have supported him affecting, the prospects of Bunty Shelke, candidate of Congress from Nagpur Central. According to sources the inside story is different. Bhupesh Baghel, ex-Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, contacted Dr Ahmed and assured him that he would be rehabilitated in a proper manner provided he should not file nomination. Sources disclosed that Ramesh Chennithala, Congress in-charge for Maharashtra, too had called Anees Ahmed and convinced him not to go ahead. He did not have any option than to avoid filing nomination. Probably, he chose not to reach in time.

 

According to Dr Ahmed, he reached the election office in time but security at the gate delayed his entry. Somehow he sorted the matter out with the security and rushed to application receipt centre. But the door of the centre was closed. “My repeated requests to authority went in vain. They did not allow me to enter. I stayed for long in the collectorate premises but nobody listened to me. This is not acceptable,” Dr Ahmed argued. A few days ago, All India Majlis-e-Ethadul Muslemeen (AIMIM) had also offered Ahmed a ticket. Ahmed had clearly said that he would never quit Congress. But after the declaration of name of Bunty Shelke from Congress, Ahmed resigned from the party and joined VBA.