Ex-Union Minister Maneka Gandhi Moves Allahabad HC Challenging Election Of SP's RB Nishad As Sultanpur MP

Senior BJP leader, MP and former Cabinet Minister Maneka Gandhi has moved an election petition before the Allahabad High Court, challenging the election of Samajwadi Party MP Ram Bhuwal Nishad from Sultanpur LokSabha constituency.

Nishad defeated Gandhi (then sitting MP, Sultanpur) by a margin of 43K+ votes in the recently concluded Lok Sabha Elections 2024. While Nishad got 4,44,330 votes, Gandhi managed to get 4,01,156 votes, leading to her defeat.

In her plea, Gandhi has accused Nishad of non-disclosure of criminal cases (in his nomination form) pending against him. Gandhi has claims that Nishad, while filing Form-26 during the election process for the Sultanpur-38 Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 elections, disclosed only 8 criminal cases, whereas there are actually 12 cases pending against him.

The petition highlights that the non-disclosure or deliberate omission of criminal cases constitutes an act of corrupt practice under Section 100 of the Representation of People Act (RPA), 1951. Based on this allegation alone, Gandhi has argued that Nishad's election should be declared void.

"the returned candidate (Nishad) deliberately did not submit his full detailed criminal antecedents. The returned candidate has a known criminal antecedents of 12 cases whereas in the affidavit filed he has only mentioned 8 (eight) criminal cases and deliberately omitted 4 (four) criminal cases. The returned candidate has played a fraud on the public and is involved in corrupt practices and thus his election is thereby liable to be disqualified under Section 100 of Representation of People Act-1951", her election petition submits.

Against this backdrop, she has contended that that the result of the election, so far as it relates to Nishad has been materially affected by the non-compliance of the provisions of the Constitution of C India, the Representation of People Act-1951 and conduct of Election Rules-1961, as well as the orders issued under R.P. Act 1951 and the Election Commission of India time to time.

The matter is likely to be heard in August 2024.