The Allahabad High Court has framed three issues on a petition challenging the legality of the election of the BJP MP from Badaun, Sanghamitra Maurya, in 2019.
In the petition, Dharmendra Yadav of the Samajwadi Party who lost the poll prayed that Ms. Maurya’s election be declared null and void.
A Bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha has framed the question whether the returning officer of Badaun improperly accepted Ms. Maurya's nomination paper, which materially affects the result of the election.
The second point to be discussed, the court said in an order dated June 3, was whether the returning officer illegally counted excess votes than the number of votes polled, under which situation the poll result is liable to be declared illegal.
The court will also decide whether Ms. Maurya's election as MP is void and liable to be set aside.
The court has fixed the matter for June 17.
Result shocked many
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Ms. Maurya secured 5.11 lakh votes against sitting MP Mr. Yadav’s 4.92 lakh votes. The result shocked many observers as Baduan is considered an SP bastion and the party was contesting in alliance with the BSP. In 2014, when the SP was contesting on its own, Mr. Yadav, a cousin of SP president Akhilesh Yadav, had won the seat comfortably by over 1.66 lakh votes.
Ms. Maurya is the daughter of Swami Prasad Maurya, who was a close aide of Mayawati before he shifted loyalty to the BJP before the 2017 Assembly polls and is today a Labour Minister in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet.
Mr. Yadav had filed the petition under Sections 80, 80-A and 81 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 challenging Ms. Maurya's election under seven grounds. Among these were alleged improper acceptance of nomination papers in which she allegedly concealed her marital status, alleged counting of 8,000 excess votes and influence of Ms. Maurya's father, leading to alleged illegal acceptance of her nomination.
