Himachal Pradesh HC Issues Notice to BJP MP Kangana Ranaut on Plea Challenging her Election

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has issued a notice to BJP MP Kangana Ranaut on a petition filed by a Kinnaur resident seeking to set aside her election.

The petition claims that the resident’s nomination papers to contest from the Lok Sabha constituency were wrongly rejected.

A single bench of Justice Jyotsna Rewal directed Ranaut to file a reply by August 21.

The actor turned politician won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, defeating her Congress rival Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes, with a total of 5,37,002 votes against Singh’s 4,62,267 votes.

The petitioner, Layak Ram Negi, argues that his nomination papers were incorrectly rejected by the returning officer, the Deputy Commissioner of Mandi, who is also made a party in the case. Negi, a former forest department employee, took premature retirement and provided a “no dues certificate” from the department along with his nomination papers to the returning officer.

Despite being given a day to produce the “no due certificate” from the electricity, water, and telephone departments, the returning officer did not accept them when he submitted them, leading to the rejection of his nomination papers. Negi contends that he could have won the election had his papers been accepted and seeks to have the election set aside.

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