Irregularities alleged, BJP candidate’s election from Naina Devi challenged

Shimla, December 26

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Senior Congress leader Ram Lal Thakur has challenged the election of BJP’s Randhir Sharma, who was elected from Naina Devi Assembly constituency (Bilaspur district).

In his petition filed before the High Court, Ram Lal alleged that the officials deputed by the EC had committed illegalities and irregularities in the process of counting of votes cast via postal ballots and corrupt practices adopted by the BJP candidate due which he lost the election by a margin of 171 votes.

Today, the plea was listed before the single Bench of Justice Sushil Kukreja, which ordered to list it before appropriate Bench on December 30.

The plea alleged that the counting agent of the petitioner had sought recount of postal ballots by filing an application on the counting day, expressing apprehension that the same had not been properly counted. Simultaneously, the counting agent moved an application, seeking reconsideration of the invalid postal ballots and rejected votes on the ground that thesee had been wrongly invalidated. Also, of 2,816 postal ballots received, 341 were declared invalid without informing the petitioner.