The nomination of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Lok Sabha candidate from West Bengal’s Birbhum constituency, former Indian Police Service officer Debasish Dhar, has been cancelled on technical grounds, The Hindu reported on Friday.

The district election officer revoked Dhar’s candidature as he had not produced a requisite “no dues” certificate from the state government. Dhar, who had been actively campaigning for the election, said that he would approach the Calcutta High Court for relief.

Senior BJP leader Debtanu Bhattacharya, who filed his nomination papers on Thursday, will contest the seat in Dhar’s place.

Polling in Birbhum is scheduled in the fourth phase of the elections on May 13. The Trinamool Congress has fielded three time MP Satabdi Roy as its candidate for the constituency.

Dhar was the superintendent of police in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district during the Assembly elections in 2021, when members of the Central Industrial Security Force fired at a mob near a polling station in Sitalkuchi. The incident had claimed four lives.

Dhar was subsequently suspended and put on Compulsory Wait. This refers to the period when a police officer is transferred out of their jurisdiction but not allocated any alternative posting.