A day still left to pull out, 18 candidates withdraw nominations for the Panchayat elections

GANGTOK, 04 Oct: There have been a total 18 withdrawals of nomination papers by aspiring panchayat candidates today in all the four districts as per information received from the respective District Collectors. It should be noted that the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers for the panchayat wards and zilla panchayat elections is Friday, 05 October.
East district saw the most number of withdrawals today with 8 candidates withdrawing their candidatures. All the withdrawals pertained to the Panchayat ward elections.
There are now 716 candidates in the fray for the elections to the panchayat wards in East district. Earlier there had been a total of 6 nomination papers rejected during the scrutiny process for the panchayat wards.
As DC, East, D Anandan clarified, the scrutiny of papers had been completed on 03 October itself.
Apart from the 6 rejections in the panchayat wards, one nomination paper of a candidate for the Zilla panchayat elections was rejected in East district. All rejections as well as withdrawals pertained to Independent candidates in East.
In South district DC, South, AK Singh informed that there had been a total of 7 withdrawals today. All the withdrawals of nomination papers in South District also pertained to the gram panchayat wards.
This leaves 505 candidates for the panchayat ward elections. Out of 271 wards 134 are already uncontested. There were no withdrawals from the zilla panchayat elections in South district today.
In West there were a total of 3 withdrawals today, all SDF candidates. There were 2 withdrawals of nomination papers from the panchayat wards and a lone withdrawal from the zilla panchayat elections in West. While it is not confirmed, the withdrawals were most likely of dummy SDF candidates.
North district saw no withdrawal of nomination papers today.