The Election Commission of India on Monday put on hold the Rajya Sabha nominations of Trinamul Congress’s Mausam Benazir Noor and Independent Dinesh Bajaj over alleged irregularities in their forms.

At the end of scrutiny of papers on Monday for the polls to five Rajya Sabha seats in Bengal on March 26, the commission accepted the nominations of Subrata Bakshi, Arpita Ghosh and Dinesh Trivedi — all from Trinamul — and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, a Left Front candidate backed by the Congress. But the poll panel scheduled hearings for the nominations of Noor and Bajaj for Tuesday morning.

During the scrutiny, the Left pointed out to the commission that in Bajaj’s nomination — filed with barely a minute to spare before the deadline on Friday — one document was missing a necessary official seal.

The Left said Noor’s middle name, present in her passport, was not mentioned in the nomination and accused her of missing the commission’s 48-hour deadline to upload on its website details of legal cases against her.

“The commission took cognisance of our objections and is yet to accept their nominations,” said Left legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty.

Trinamul accused the Left of “nitpicking” in order to ensure Bhattacharyya sailed through without a contest.

“They are afraid to face an election as cross-voting from Left and Congress will see Bajaj through. That is why they want to keep him out. They are unnecessarily trying to harass Mausam. She will win whenever the election is held,” said a source in Trinamul.

“Their matters will be firmly defended before the returning officer on Tuesday. We hope their nominations would be accepted at the end,” he added.