EC cancels nomination of Modi’s challenger

India's Election Commission (EC) has cancelled the nomination of an ex-soldier who was running against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Varanasi constituency of Uttar Pradesh state.

The former Border Security Force member, Tej Bahadur Yadav, shot to fame in 2017 after posting three videos, complaining that troops on the border with Pakistan were often served poor quality food. The videos went viral, prompting an official inquiry.

Mr Yadav was sacked four months later for ‘making false allegations’.

The Election Commission has said that government employees who were dismissed from service cannot stand in elections for five years.

Mr Yadav was contesting against Mr Modi as a joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The regional parties have formed an alliance against Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Congress party.

The ex-soldier, who has never run for office before, was certainly a surprising choice - especially since he was going up against Mr Modi, who won the seat by a huge margin of more than 300,000 votes in 2014.

But he was also bound to grab attention as a candidate because his videos had sparked both sympathy and outrage on his behalf. He had posted videos of burnt food and said the quality of meals was so poor that soldiers often chose not to eat at all.

And his candidacy was also a political statement of sorts - Mr Modi has repeatedly evoked the sacrifices of soldiers during his campaign.

Mr Yadav told the BBC that he would continue to campaign for the SP and BSP.