BJP MP Kangana Ranaut's election challenged, HC issues notice

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday issued notice to BJP Lok Sabha member Kangana Ranaut from Mandi on a petition filed by a Kinnaur resident seeking to put her election on hold, The reason was that his nomination papers to contest from the Lok Sabha constituency were allegedly wrongly rejected.

Justice Jyotsna Rewal, after issuing notice, directed Ranaut to file his reply before August 21.

Ranaut won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, defeating her rival Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes. She got 5,37,002 votes while Singh got 4,62,267 votes.

Petitioner Layak Ram Negi, pleading to stay the election of Ranaut, maintained that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected by the Returning Officer (Deputy Commissioner Mandi), making him a political party.

Negi, a former employee of the forest department, said he took early retirement and presented the department's “certificate of exemption from dues” along with his nomination papers to the election officials.

However, he was given one day to produce “no expiry certificates” from the electricity, water and telephone departments and when he submitted them, the election officials did not accept them and rejected the nomination papers.

He argued that he would have won the election if his documents had been accepted and said the election was on hold. PTI BPL RT RT

.

.

(This report has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from United News Agency-PTI)