Imphal, December 08: With the State Returning Officer (SRO), appointed to conduct the election of a new MPP president, having rejected the candidature of AK Sanaton, the ground is left for party general secretary (Admn) Kshetrimayum Brajamani and joint secretary L Borajao to try their luck for the post of the party chief for which election is scheduled on December 11.All the three nomination papers submitted from the side of AK Sanaton, a senior member of the party, which were kept �reserved� after the scrutiny on December 3, without spelling out whether he could contest in the election or not, have been rejected.

A notification in this connection was issued by SRO M Binodkumar late evening yesterday.

On the day of the scrutiny itself, the nomination papers of Kshetrimayum Brajamani and L Borajao were accepted.

However the papers of AK Sanaton were �reserved� following a complaint from Borajao who said that Sanaton still had not accounted Rs 6,447 of the party's fund.

Rejecting the charges levelled against Sanaton, office assistant of the party L Imobi filed an affidavit with the SRO stating that the said amount was in his possession.

When The Sangai Express contacted at the MPP office this afternoon in connection with the rejection of the nomination papers of AK Sanaton, SRO M Binodkumar said that the development after the scrutiny, the election-related documents submitted to him and the report of the hearing conducted were forwarded to party president for perusal.

After these papers and reports were discussed by the president and other party leaders, the final report was submitted to him at around 9 am yesterday and it was on the basis of the report, the rejection notification of AK Sanaton's candidacy was issued, Binodkumar said.

According to the report of the party president, the charges of financial mismanagement levelled against Sanaton are true, the SRO said, adding that the notification rejecting the nomination papers of Sanaton has been sent to him by registered post this morning as there was no one in the office to hand it over personally.

With date for withdrawal of nomination paper over and the failure to zero in on a consensus candidate, the field is now left the other two aspiring candidates to flex their muscles for the post of the party president.

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