BJP swaps VMC candidate at last minute over voter list issue

Vadodara: The BJP was forced to change its candidate for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) seat in Ward 1 of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) just hours before the nomination deadline on Saturday, after it emerged that its declared nominee was not registered in the civic electoral roll.The party had initially fielded Raag Machhar, son of senior party member Lalit Machhar, who has long been associated with the BJP and runs a hospital in Nizampura. While Raag's name appeared in the Assembly electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), it was not included in the voters' list for the civic polls. According to Machhar, the family had shifted their voter registration from Fatepura in Dahod to Vadodara during the SIR process but may have missed the deadline for inclusion in the municipal electoral roll.With time running out, the BJP replaced Machhar with Bhursing Rathwa, whose documents were in order and who was listed as a voter for the civic elections.