Election of BJP MP Kangana Ranaut challenged, HC issues notice
Shimla, Jul 24: The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday issued notice to Kangana Ranaut, the BJP Lok Sabha member from Mandi, on a petition filed by a Kinnaur resident for setting aside her election on the grounds that his nomination papers to contest from the Lok Sabha constituency were allegedly wrongly rejected.
Issuing the notice, Justice Jyotsna Rewal directed Ranaut to file a reply by August 21.
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.
Pleading for setting aside the election of Ranaut, the petitioner, Layak Ram Negi, maintained that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected by the returning officer (Deputy Commissioner, Mandi) and also made him a party.
Negi, an ex-employee of the forest department, said that he got premature retirement and produced a "no dues certificate" from the department along with nomination papers to the returning officer.
However, he was given a day to produce the "no due certificate" from the electricity, water and telephone departments and when he submitted them, the returning officer did not accept them and rejected the nomination papers.
He pleaded that he could have won the election had his papers been accepted and said that the election be set aside.
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Sringeri postal ballot recount: Votes tampered with, alleges D.K. Shivakumar
Hospet: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Sunday alleged large-scale tampering of postal ballots in the Sringeri constituency.
Speaking to the media near the Tungabhadra Dam, he said, “A large-scale crime has taken place in Sringeri. Tampering has been done using officials. More than 200 ballot papers have been tampered with.”
He further alleged that postal ballots were manipulated despite signatures being recorded during counting, calling it a “shame for the country.”
“They have tampered with the votes of our MLAs. Similar tampering has taken place in Jayanagar too. This is an insult to democracy. There should be a thorough investigation into this. The law will take its course. We will go to court,” he said.
