The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday sought the response of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut to a petition challenging her victory in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, reported Bar and Bench.
A bench of Justice Jyostna Rewal Dua was hearing a plea by Kinnaur resident Layak Ram Negi, who claimed that his nomination papers for the polls were wrongly rejected by the constituency’s returning officer, reported PTI.
Negi claimed that he would have defeated Ranaut had he been allowed to contest the election from Mandi.
Negi’s plea has made the returning officer a party to the case.
A former employee of the forest department, Negi contended that he opted for early retirement so that he could contest the polls. He said that he had produced a no-dues certificate from his workplace and submitted it to the returning officer along with his nomination papers.
However, Negi said he was given only one day to produce similar no-dues certificates from the electricity, water and telephone departments, reported PTI.
When these documents were finally submitted to the returning officer, they were not accepted and Negi’s nomination was summarily rejected, according to his plea.
The court will next hear the matter on August 21, reported Bar and Bench.
On June 4, Ranaut won from the Mandi constituency, defeating the Congress’ Vikramaditya Singh by a margin of 74,755 votes. Ranaut, who contested the polls for the first time, secured 5.37 lakh of the total votes while Singh won 4.62 lakh votes.
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