Lucknow, June 24: The Congress today sought to prove that returning officer R.P. Pandey had “acted under pressure” in rejecting the nominations of two party candidates by bringing up “gross irregularities” in the papers of three other nominees.

Pandey had rejected the papers of Rajya Sabha candidates Harendra Agarwal and Madan Mohan Shukla, saying they were not backed by adequate information, were incorrectly formatted and had been filed after the deadline was over.

Advocates defending the two in the review ordered by the Election Commission claimed that Samajwadi Party candidate Bhagawati Singh had filed a copy of an old affidavit of his assets and crime record.

Counsel Ashoke Nigam told Pandey he had filed the affidavit two years ago when he ran for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Council.

He alleged that Independent candidate Lalit Suri, backed by the BJP, had submitted an incomplete crime record. Bahujan Samaj Party candidate S.C. Mishra had not filled up the paragraph on income-tax returns, he claimed.

“If these were not lapses of substantial character which you ignored, what prompted you to only target Congress candidates?” Nigam asked Pandey.

The review hearing began this morning in the central hall of the Assembly before Pandey and Vijay Sharma, the chief electoral officer present as a representative of Nirvachan Sadan. All 13 candidates had deputed advocates to defend their cases.

Nigam asserted that Pandey failed in his duty as a quasi-judicial officer by failing to offer the candidates a chance to rectify mistakes, if any. The right of rebuttal is mentioned in several apex court orders, he pleaded.

Citing other cases and provisions of the Representation of the People Act, the counsel further argued that the nomination papers of Agarwal and Shukla did not suffer from any “error of substantial nature”.

“In fact the RO used differing measuring rods to assess the forms,” an advocate defending Agarwal’s nomination alleged. The hearing will continue tomorrow.

The party turned up the heat on Pandey outside by holding a demonstration.

“He is listening to our arguments but not taking any notes. He has made up his mind. We don’t hope to get any justice from him,” said Congress legislature party chief Pramod Tiwari outside Pandey’s office.

“Na khata na bahi, jo Pandey kahi sahi (there is no notebook or book, whatever Pandey says is right),” chanted a Congress leader.

“We are all set to go to higher judiciary against the RO for a fraud that has been committed in the process of filing nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha,” said state Congress chief Jagdambika Pal.