HC had cancelled BJP leader’s election in an order passed on a petition challenging his victory from by a margin of 327 votes in the 2017 Gujarat polls.
New Delhi| On Friday, the Supreme Court stayed a Gujarat HC order nullifying state education and law minister and BJP MLA Bhupendrasinh Chudasama’s 2017 election victory on grounds of malpractice and vote manipulation.
The HC had cancelled BJP MLA Bhupendrasinh’s election in an order passed on a petition filed by Congress candidate Ashwin Rathod, challenging his victory from Dholka constituency by a margin of 327 votes in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections.
Justice Paresh Upadhyay had upheld the arguments presented by the Congress candidate that 429 postal ballot votes were cancelled illegally.
In his election petition, Rathod claimed that Chudasama indulged in “corrupt practice and breach of many of the compulsory instructions of the Election Commission, at various stages of the election process, especially at the time of counting of votes”.
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Congress candidate had tendered in the petition that BJP leader was named winner in the election by the Returning Officer (RO) and Deputy Collector of Dholka Dhaval Jani, who had manipulated the process of counting of ballot papers, so he should be declared the winner. Dhaval had not followed the process of counting and cancelled 429 postal ballot votes.
During the trial, the court had found evident breaches of election rules by Dhaval who was seen talking over the phone inside the counting centre. The court had noted this while seeing video footage and cross-examination of Jani.
(Inputs from News18)
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