Congress was forced to change its candidate from the Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes. The Congress has fielded Rashmi Barve from the seat but her caste certificate was declared invalid by the Social Justice Department’s District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee yesterday. This led to the disqualification of Barve’s candidature and thus the Congress fielded her husband Shyamrao Barve from the seat. While the nominations for the seat ended on March 27, the scrutiny was taken up on March 28.

Shyamrao Barve had filed his papers as a substitute candidate and became the official candidate of Congress after the nomination of his wife Rashmi Barve was rejected.

However, Rashmi Barve rushed to the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court challenging the rejection of her caste certificate. A division bench posted the matter for further hearing on April 1st.