Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; April 7, 2014)

TV actress Urvashi Dholakia was going to contest the Lok Sabha elections this year; she was supposed to represent Samajwadi Party. Known her portrayal of a vamp in several serials, she had filed her nomination papers over the weekend but they were rejected.

Says a source, “After Kamaal R Khan was ousted from the party, Urvashi was supposed to fill in for him and contest elections from the Mumbai North West constituency. But when she went to fill the form and submit the documents, the application was rejected as she had missed the deadline for the same.”

Farhan Azmi, who is contesting elections from Samajwadi Party, says, “Urvashi wanted to contest from the same constituency. She went to file the form and had completed all formalities, including a payment of Rs 25,000. She even got a receipt, but soon after she was told that her form has been rejected.”

The party will hold a press conference today in a bid to address the issue; it also plans to approach the court. Azmi feels that it was ploy against his party by a rival camp. “We want access to the CCTV footage as Urvashi was not late for filing the form. She just wanted to consult us and she called me to discuss the form. The authorities then told her that there are some minor spelling mistakes in her form and so on. We are surprised that they are not letting a woman contest the elections.”

Urvashi remained unavailable for comment.