A petition was recently filed in the Himachal Pradesh high court by a Kinnaur resident for setting aside Kangana Ranaut’s election from the Mandi constituency on the ground that his nomination papers to contest from the same Lok Sabha constituency as the actress, were wrongly rejected by the returning officer (deputy commissioner, Mandi). The returning officer has also been made a party.
The petitioner, Layak Ram Negi, is an ex-employee of the forest department. According to his petition, he took premature retirement and gave a ‘no dues certificate’ from the department along with his nomination papers to the returning officer. He was given a day to produce the ‘no due certificates’ from the electricity, water and telephone departments and when he submitted them, the returning officer did not accept them and instead rejected his nomination papers. In the petition, Negi pleaded that he could have won the elections had his papers been accepted and prayed for the election to be set aside.
Justice Jyotsna Rewal on July 24 issued notice to Kangana Ranaut, BJP’s Lok Sabha member elected from Mandi, directing the actress to file a reply by August 21. Kangana had won the Mandi seat by defeating her rival, Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh, by 74,755 votes.