Kangana Ranaut’s Mandi Election Challenged, High Court Issues Notice

Justice Jyotsna Rewal issued a notice directing Ms. Ranaut to file a reply by August 21. Ms. Ranaut won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, defeating her rival Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes, polling 5,37,002 votes against Singh’s 4,62,267 votes. The petitioner, Layak Ram Negi, pleaded for setting aside the election of Ms. Ranaut.

He maintained that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected by the returning officer, who also made him a party. Negi, an ex-employee of the forest department, stated that he got premature retirement and produced a “no dues certificate” from the department along with nomination papers to the returning officer. Despite being given a day to produce the “no due certificate” from the electricity, water, and telephone departments, when he submitted them, the returning officer did not accept them and rejected the nomination papers.

Negi stated that he could have won the election had his papers been accepted and requested that the election be set aside. *(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed. )*