A Kinnaur resident has filed a petition, alleging the wrongful rejection of his nomination papers to contest from the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency. The Himachal Pradesh High Court issued a notice on Wednesday to Kangana Ranaut, the BJP Lok Sabha member from Mandi, following a petition by the Kinnaur resident, seeking to set aside her election due to the alleged wrongful rejection of his nomination papers. Justice Jyotsna Rewal directed Ms. Ranaut to respond by August 21.
Ms. Ranaut won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat by defeating Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh with a margin of 74,755 votes, securing 537,002 votes against Singh’s 462,267 votes. The petitioner, Layak Ram Negi, argued that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected by the returning officer (Deputy Commissioner, Mandi), who was also made a party in the case. Negi, a former forest department employee, stated that he had taken premature retirement and submitted a “no dues certificate” from the department with his nomination papers.
Negi was given a day to provide “no dues certificates” from the electricity, water, and telephone departments. Despite submitting these certificates, the returning officer allegedly did not accept them and rejected his nomination papers. Negi claimed that he could have won the election had his papers been accepted and urged that the election be set aside.
