The Allahabad High Court has framed three issues on the petition challenging the legality of the election of BJP MP from Badaun Lok Sabha seat Sanghamitra Maurya in 2019.
Dharmendra Yadav, the losing candidate of the Samajwadi Party, had filed an election petition praying 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.
‘Illegal counting’
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.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Ms. Maurya secured 5.11 lakh votes as she defeated the sitting MP Mr. Yadav who managed 4.92 lakh votes. The result shocked many observers as Baduan is considered an SP bastion and the party was contesting in an alliance with the BSP in 2019. 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.
The court has fixed the matter for June 17.
Mr. Yadav had filed the election petition under Sections 80, 80-A and 81 of the Representatives of Peoples Act, 1951.
