Ram and his Suryavanshi clan as proposers and Ravana and his brethren as seconders — how would that be to have for a prospective candidate of the Presidential candidate?

Or better still, how about Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Tantya Tope, Mahatma Gandhi and other such luminaries of the freedom struggle as your proposer and seconder?

If you think this is a joke, well it is not. Very serious-looking people who see themselves as the perfect candidate for the post of India’s President, submitted these names as of those who had proposed and seconded their candidatures.

Valid nomination
Quite naturally, the Returning Officer (RO) rejected all of these nomination papers, technically on the grounds that they did not have the name of valid proposers and seconders and in almost all cases, had not deposited the required fee of Rs 15,000. For a nomination paper to be valid, all proposers and seconders — 50 each — have to be members of the electoral college comprising MPs and MLAs of the country.

But Mohan Ramayani from Datiya in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh clearly did not think so. Hence, among the names he gave as those of his proposers were those of Lord Ram, his brothers Lakshman, Bharat, Shatrughan, while among his “seconders” were Ravan, Kumbhakarna and other characters from the Ramayan.

He had also included names of BJP leaders like L K Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee and AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha as his proposers, and those of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi as his seconders, and though except Priyanka all others were legally capable to proposing or seconding candidates’ names, in this case Mr Ramayani had not got their signatures for obvious reasons.

Rejected
Another candidate gave the names of heroes of 1857 as his proposers and seconders, while another gave the name of latter luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi.

Quite a few among those who had to be heard by the Returning Officer as per rules gave long lectures on various issues, virtually forcing everyone present, including P R Dasmunsi and Abhishek Singhvi accompanying UPA-Left's Pratibha Patil and Sushma Swaraj and Satpal Jain accompanying “independent” B S Shekhawat, to yawn.

Of the total 84 nomination papers received, Returning Officer and Lok Sabha Secretary-General P D T Achary rejected 35 in the first go itself, while he had to hear out 41 of the remaining 49 nominations.
While Ms Patil and Mr Shekhawat’s papers were found to be in order, all others were rejected as they were incomplete.

Achary, on his part, commented after the process was over, “The election seems to have generated enthusiasm among people compared to last time when some 60-odd candidates had filed their papers.”