PATNA: The Opposition INDIA bloc suffered a major setback on Wednesday after the nomination of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Sweata Suman from the Mohania assembly seat in Kaimur district was cancelled during scrutiny for technical reasons.

Suman, visibly upset, alleged foul play following the Election Commission’s decision. “My candidature has been cancelled on technical grounds, but I am not satisfied. There is a conspiracy behind it. My nomination was rejected under pressure,” she told reporters, breaking down before the media.

Election Commission officials said the cancellation followed findings that Suman was a native of Uttar Pradesh and therefore ineligible to contest from Mohania, a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes in Bihar. The Commission also cited discrepancies in her caste certificate, sources revealed.

This development comes just a day after another INDIA bloc candidate, RJD’s sitting MLA from Sugauli (East Champaran), Shashibhushan Singh, was also disqualified on procedural grounds.

Singh had filed nomination as a candidate of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), which received the Sugauli seat under the bloc’s seat-sharing arrangement. However, since VIP is not a registered regional party, Singh was required to furnish signatures of 10 proposers but reportedly submitted only one, following RJD’s internal rules. Election authorities subsequently deemed his papers invalid.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has also been hit by similar setbacks. The nomination of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate Seema Singh was cancelled from the Marhaura seat in Saran district over document inconsistencies. Singh, considered a key face of Union Minister Chirag Paswan’s party in the region, was among five nominees whose papers were rejected during scrutiny.

Alongside Singh, the nominations of four other contestants — Independent candidates Altaf Alam, Raju, and Vishal Kumar, as well as Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Aditya Kumar — were also dismissed.

Political analysts say the series of disqualifications, cutting across party lines, could significantly alter candidate equations ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections.