Maharashtra: Congress Candidate's Caste Certificate Found Invalid, Ruling Mahayuti Might Get Walkover On Ramtek Lok Sabha Seat

The ruling coalition in Maharashtra, Mahayuti might get a walkover in Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency as the Election Commission (EC) authorities found the caste certificate of the Congress candidate Rashmi Barve invalid.

If Barve's nomination gets canceled, then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will not get a chance to field its candidate here because the last day for nomination filing was yesterday and now the EC officials are scrutinising the nomination papers.

A caste certificate is important because Ramtek is a constituency reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates. Notably, Barve contested the Lok Sabha election here in 2019 also but lost to the undivided Shiv Sena's candidate.

This time, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), now part of the MVA along with Congress and Shard Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), too wanted to contest Ramtek.

However, the Congress declared its candidate from Ramtek before Shiv Sena (UBT) could do so, responding to which the party MP Sanjay Raut said there are no disputes over seat-sharing as the Shiv Sena accepted Congress' move.

Former Congress MLA from Umred, an assembly segment falling under Ramtek Lok Sabha seat, Raju Parwe is the Mahayuti candidate from here. He had recently joined the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Barve had filed her nomination papers yesterday with a show of strength. She was issued a show-cause notice by District Caste Certificate Authentication Committee 10 days ago.

The committee sought details of her caste certificate validity documents. However, a senior official was quoted as saying by Live Hindustan that her caste certificate is invalid.

Barve has now moved the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court challenging the committee's decision and seeking intervention. The case will be heard on 1 April by a division bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and Abhay Mantri.