Former BJP MP Maneka Gandhi has filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court challenging the election of Samajwadi Party MP Ram Bhual Nishad from the Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency. The challenge followed on the grounds of not disclosing all the pending criminal cases against him at the time of filing his nomination papers for the recently held Lok Sabha election.
Gandhi, who lost to Nishad by 43,174 votes, submitted her election petition to the court registry on Saturday. The petition is likely to be heard by the Lucknow bench on July 30.
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In her petition, Gandhi accused Nishad of concealing information about his criminal history in the affidavit submitted during his nomination for the recent Lok Sabha election. As per the petition, 12 criminal cases are pending against Nishad, but he only disclosed information about eight cases in his affidavit.
The petition claimed that Nishad had failed to mention his criminal cases at Pipraich police station of Gorakhpur district and Barhalganj police station.
Maneka Gandhi's Counsel Accuses Nishad Of Misleading EC
In the petition, Gandhi urged the High Court to annul Nishad's election and declare her as the elected candidate.
She appeared before the registrar of the high court on Saturday to file the petition. “Maneka Gandhi has filed a case challenging the election of SP MP from Sultanpur Rambhual Nishad. Twelve criminal cases are lodged against him and he had only mentioned eight in the election affidavit,”, the counsel for Maneka Gandhi, Prashant Singh said, Hindustan Times reported.
“He (Rambhual Nishad) also misled the Election Commission by not disclosing the fact that in four criminal cases, he had been charge sheeted,” Singh added. After the nomination of the bench, the case is likely to come up for hearing soon, Singh further stated.