SC dismisses Tej Bahadur Yadav’s plea against rejection of his candidature in Varanasi

New Delhi, May 09: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed plea of former BSF constable and SP candidate Tej Bahadur Yadav against rejection of his nomination from Varanasi LS constituency.

A Bench headed by CJI Gogoi dismissing the plea said, "We don't find any merit to entertain this petition."

Samajwadi Party had fielded Tej Bahadur as its candidate against PM Modi from the constituency.

Tej Bahadur had approached the apex court on Monday challenging the rejection of his candidature against PM Modi in Varanasi. He has alleged that his candidature was rejected "to give walkover to the candidate of the ruling party", namely, Narendra Modi.

Yadav was seeking to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a ticket from the Opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh, comprising of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). Advocate Prashant Bhushan is likely to represent Yadav.

Varanasi Assistant RO Rajesh Kumar said, "He has not taken permission from ECI regarding contesting polls, which needs to be taken in case a government official who has been removed or suspended wants to contest polls."

Also Read | Sacked BSF jawan Tej Bahadur's nomination from Varanasi rejected by EC

Yadav, who served in the Border Security Force, rose to fame after a video of him complaining of the food given to security personnel went viral on social media in 2017. He was later sacked from his post.