Balwantsinh Rajput moves High Court over ECI decision to invalidate two votes in RS polls, requests disqualification of Ahmed Patel

August 18, 2017
Ahmedabad BJP Congress Gujarat Politics

Ahmedabad: BJP candidate in the August 8 Rajyasabha election in Gujarat, Balwantsinh Rajput who lost with a thin margin after a nail-biting photo-finish like situation in the counting post mid-night, moved Gujarat High Court today challenging the said controversial decision of the Election Commission to cancel two votes of dissident Congress MLAs polled in his favour and the victory of congress candidate and political secretary of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel.

Rajput in his election petition has not only challenged the commission’s decision but also requested the court to disqualify Ahmed Patel from contesting any election for the next six years owing to corrupt practices adopted by him.

Rajput has also prayed the court to declare him the winner in place of Patel.

In his plea before the court of Justice M R Shah, Rajput, who was declared as the third BJP candidate for the election soon after his resignation as Congress MLA and whip and joining the ruling party, filed through Supreme Court advocate Satyapal Jain along with Devang Vyas has said that it should be heard at the earliest.

Jain requested Justice Shah for listing the matter for an early hearing on which he ordered its listing for August 21 when it was likely to come up for hearing.

Rajya-Sabha-election-Gujarat-2017

In the petition Rajput has alleged that the EC order was patently illegal and ‘void ab initio’ and liable to be set aside as the commission has no power to issue any instruction to the Returning officer for accepting or rejecting any vote as valid or invalid. He has claimed that the RO had rejected the objection to the two votes earlier and his EC has no power to overrule his discretion. It should also not have heard the appeal of the party (Congress/Patel), who as per law could have approached a court for any remedy.

He has also alleged that Patel indulged in corrupt practices like bribery and undue influence over the voters and forcefully took away 44 Congress MLAs to a distant place like Bangalore and kept them in captivity. He also spent huge amount on their entertainment in a resort there. Because of this the voters could not exercise their free will.

Rajput has also alleged that two of the Congress voters who polled in favor of Patel had shown their ballots to others and their votes were liable to be rejected and should be cancelled. In such a scenario he would be getting more votes than Patel and was entitled to be declared winner in place of Patel.

It was expected that he would move to a court of law to challenge the EC decision.

During the election at least 8 Congress MLAs including Shankersinh  Vaghela, his son Mahendrasinh and Raghavji Patel and Bhola Gohil (whose votes were rejected by EC) cross voted in favor of Rajput.

 

Ahmed-Patel-Signing

 

DeshGujarat

#Balwantsinh Rajput

Related Stories

Recent Stories