SC dismisses sacked BSF jawan Tej Bahadur's plea opposing PM Modi's election from Varanasi

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the plea of sacked BSF jawan Tej Bahadur against the rejection of his nomination papers to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Varanasi constituency. A bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, which had reserved its verdict in the case on November 18, upheld the Allahabad High Court judgment dismissing Tej Bahadur's petition against the poll panel's decision to reject his nomination papers.

On May 1 last year, the returning officer had rejected the nomination papers of Tej Bahadur, a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate, who was dismissed from the Border Security Force (BSF) in 2017 after he posted a video online complaining about the quality of food served to the troops. The hight court had upheld the returning officer's decision to reject his nomination.

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A failed attempt to fight polls against PM Modi

In the Lok Sabha elections 2019, former BSF soldier Tej Bahadur filed his nomination as a Samajwadi Party candidate from Varanasi constituency. He said that he wants to contest the election against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, the Election Commission (EC) cancelled his nomination because he was unable to submit NOC from the BSF. Tej Bahadur, a native of Rewari in Haryana, had posted a video online in 2017, complaining about poor quality of food being served to the troops on the icy heights along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. Following his video, the Summary Security Force Court (SSFC) had dismissed him after a trial. He then contested the Haryana Assembly elections from Karnal against Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on JJP ticket, but lost and later quit JJP. 

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