Kanpur, Feb 4 (IANS): He is a 'dead' man and his hopes of 'returning back to life' have been dashed after his nomination papers for an Assembly seat in Kanpur were rejected.

Santosh Murat Singh, a Varanasi-based man, had filed the nomination for the Maharajpur Assembly seat to prove that he was alive after being declared dead in revenue records.

His nomination papers have been rejected for not fulfilling the mandatory requirements.

Singh, who claims that he has worked as a cook for the famous Bollywood star Nana Patekar, staged a protest on Thursday, saying that his nomination was rejected for the wrong reasons.

He told reporters that he was declared 'dead' by his cousins using forged documents to grab his property.

Weeping bitterly after his papers were rejected, he said that he was hopeful that he would get justice if he contested in polls because this would prove that he was very much alive.

Singh, a native of Chitauni of Varanasi, has been declared dead in the revenue department. As per the revenue records, he died following an explosion in a train in Mumbai in 2003.

On the basis of the fake death certificate, his cousins allegedly sold his 12 and a half acres of land after getting it transferred in their name.

Singh has been trying to contest elections for 17 years to prove himself alive, but he has not yet achieved success.

He told media persons that he had filed nominations in the 2012 presidential elections, in 2014 and 2019 from Varanasi seat in Lok Sabha elections, but his nomination was rejected.

In 2017, he contested from Shivpur Assembly seat of Varanasi, but lost.

He had decided, this time, to contest from Kanpur, which is the native district of President Ram Nath Kovind.

He had got a ticket from the Jan Sangh party but his nomination form was rejected.

The returning officer, Amit Tomar, said Singh's proposers were less than the required number, and signatures of many were found to be missing.

"In the nomination, the proposers were less than 10, and many did not even have a signature, on the basis of which, his nomination was rejected," the officer said.