VBA candidate Anees Ahmed misses filing nomination by few minutes

Nagpur: High drama was witnessed at the collectorate here as former Maharashtra minister Anees Ahmed, given ticket by the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi to contest Nagpur Central seat, missed the deadline for filing nomination by just a few minutes.

Ahmed, a Gandhi family loyalist who won the Nagpur Central seat three times in the past on Congress ticket, stayed put at the collectorate till 8 pm on Tuesday, the last day of filing nominations for the state assembly polls, but in vain as his form was not accepted.

The deadline for filing of nominations for the November 20 state polls was 3 pm on Tuesday.

Talking to PTI, Ahmed claimed he had to face various obstacles like road closure, vehicular restrictions and security protocols at the office of the Returning Officer (RO) on Tuesday.

The former minister also said he was occupied during the day in securing relevant documents for the submission and reached the collectorate before the 3 pm deadline.

His associates were sitting there with his token number but he was not allowed inside the RO's office, Ahmed claimed.

Questions were being raised as to how the senior leader could miss the deadline and there were speculations that the Congress top brass made efforts to convince him not to contest.

Ahmed recently resigned from the Congress. This had led to concerns in the Congress camp about the possibility of his candidature splitting the Muslim votes and denting the grand old party's prospects while favouring the BJP.

The Congress this time did not field Ahmed from Nagpur Central constituency, which has a considerable Muslim population, and renominated Bunty Shelke, who narrowly lost to the BJP in 2019.

Ahmed was not initially keen on fighting the election, but later pitched for a ticket from the Congress, claiming Muslim leaders wanted him to contest the election for the community's representation from the seat.

He resigned from the Congress a few days back and joined the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi in Mumbai on Monday and got the 'AB' from VBA to file nomination from the seat.

The Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) had also earlier offered the ticket to Ahmed, but he then rejected it claiming loyalty to the Congress.