Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court issued a notice on a petition challenging the election of BJP MP Kangana Ranaut from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat. The court has ordered the actor-turned-politician Ranaut to respond to the petition by August 21. The petition seeks to set aside Ranaut's election on the grounds that the resident's nomination papers to contest from the Lok Sabha constituency were allegedly wrongly rejected.
Ranaut had won from Mandi Lok Sabha seat, defeating her rival Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes. She had polled 5,37,002 votes against Singh's 4,62,267 votes.
Here's what petitioner claims
Justice Jyotsna Rewal issued the notice on the petition of Layak Ram Negi, a Kinnaur resident, who had filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate for the Mandi seat, but his nomination was rejected. Pleading to set aside Ranaut's election, the petitioner maintained that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected by the returning officer (Deputy Commissioner, Mandi), who has also been made a party in the case.
Negi, an ex-employee of the forest department, mentioned that he took premature retirement and submitted a "no dues certificate" from the department along with his nomination papers to the returning officer. However, he was given a day to provide "no dues certificates" from the electricity, water, and telephone departments.
When he submitted these additional certificates, the returning officer did not accept them and rejected his nomination papers.
Negi pleaded that he could have won the election if his papers had been accepted and requested that the election be set aside.
(With PTI inputs)
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