BJP has ordered an internal inquiry into the suspected foul play from within the party for delay in submission of mandatory A and B forms by its candidate while filing his nomination for the Nilgiris (SC) Lok Sabha seat, which led to the rejection of his papers.
This has left the party without a candidate in the prestigious seat, where former Union Minister A Raja is seeking re-election as DMK candidate.
The rejection of the nomination of S Gurumurthy came as a major jolt not only to the BJP bosses, but the cadre and workers also as they were working hard to wrest the seat, twice held by Master Mathan of the party till 2004.
There were reports that the candidate or those who do not want the party to contest in Nilgiris deliberately delayed submitting the forms so that it can be rejected for the benefit of some other parties.
Senior BJP leaders from Chennai will arrive Coimabtore and Udhagamandalam to inquire the matter, whether the delay was deliberate or candidates were misguided or any other political parties played trick on the official candidates, the sources said.
Moreover, the workers blamed that in-charge of Nilgiris parliamentary constituency was also "unceremoniously" removed from the post making the dissidents to play their trick, thus tarnishing the image of the party.
The in-charge of Nilgiris, who was scheduled to go along with the party candidate to file the paper, was in the last minute asked not to proceed to Udhagamandalam, as he no longer remained in the post.
The mandatory Form A and Form B, filed along with the nomination paper, give details of the candidate's movable/immovable assets and pending cases against him/her.
