Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | Ex-minister Anees Ahmed returns to Congress after failing to file nomination as VBA candidate

Mumbai: Former Maharashtra minister Anees Ahmed, who missed the deadline by a whisker to file his nomination as Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) candidate, returned to the Congress on Saturday.

AICC in-charge Ramesh Chennithala welcomed Ahmed back to the fold, which he had quit last week to contest the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections as candidate of the VBA from the Nagpur Central seat.

There was high drama at the Nagpur collectorate on October 29, as Ahmed missed the deadline for filing nomination by just a few minutes.

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

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

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

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

Earlier, Ahmed's resignation from Congress had led to concerns in the party that his candidature may split the Muslim votes and dent its prospects.

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

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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