Challenge to Danilimda assembly polls: Gujarat HC notice to Election Commission of India

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat high court on Monday issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and seven contestants from the Danilimda assembly constituency after a candidate from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenged the election.
Among the contestants, the winner from this assembly seat, Congress party’s Shailesh Parmar, has also been issued a notice. Justice S G Shah has asked all respondents to file their replies before March 26, when further hearing on the petition is posted, said Mevada’s counsel K R Koshti.

The election petition was filed by AAP candidate Jayantibhai Mevada, who was disqualified by election officials from contesting the polls on technical ground. During the scrutiny, his nomination was rejected. The reason behind the cancellation was that one of his 10 proposers had withdrawn his support to Mevada’s candidature for Danilimda seat, which was reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate.

Immediately after cancellation of the candidature, Mevada had moved the high court against the election officials’ decision. He had argued that when he went to file nomination papers on November 22, 2017, the proposer had put his signature on the papers. On November 24, the proposer was present before the election officer at the time of verification. But later on November 28, the proposer retracted and withdrew his support. Hence, EC’s decision to cancel his nomination should be revoked.

The HC had rejected Mevada’s petition by terming it premature. He filed an election petition after the polls got over.

Besides Danilimda constituency, the election results of over 20 seats are under challenge on various grounds.