Guwahati, July 23: Defeated Congress candidate from Karimganj constituency, Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury on Monday filed an election petition in the Gauhati High Court seeking a fresh election in 7-Karimganj Lok Sabha constituency keeping the election of BJP candidate Kripanath Mallah in abeyance.
Choudhury filed the election petition against the Election Commission of India (ECI) challenging the election of the BJP candidate Kripanath Mallah from the constituency.
Mallah emerged victorious with 5,45093 votes securing a margin of 18,360 votes over his nearest rival Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury who obtained 5,26,733 votes. AIUDF candidate Sahabul Islam Choudhury finished a distant third with 29,205 votes.
A single-bencch judge comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi, who heard the petition on Monday, issued the summons to the respondents seeking their presence in the court on August 19.
In his petition, Choudhury alleged that the BJP candidate Kripanath Mallah was declared as the winner with a margin of mere 1.6% votes against him by committing multiple ‘corrupt practices’ both while campaigning as well as on the day of elections, including widespread rigging, booth capturing, voter intimidation through undue influence and bribery, etc.
The petitioner sought for the election to be declared null and void and for fresh election in the constituency.
The petitioner alleged that his legal team convenor Gautam Choudhury, throughout the day of the polling, continuously filed complaints with the Election Commission of India (ECI) via email, flagging the specific cases of rigging and booth capturing across 20 polling stations.
Choudhury also said his election agent had also submitted a complaint on the date of polling detailing the ‘corrupt electoral practices’ of booth capturing detailing the malpractices committed in 31 specific polling stations.
The petitioner also alleged booth capturing across 47 polling stations, which constitutes almost double the number of votes than the margin between the two candidates.
Choudhury also raised issues regarding the integrity of the voting process as ECI stated in its voter turnout data that 11,36,538 votes were polled which after adding postal ballots totalled to 11,43,796 votes.
However, on the date of counting, a total number of votes counted was 11,47,607, thereby resulting in an unexplained additional 3,811 votes having been counted.
During the hearing of the petition, senior advocate KP Pathak appeared for the petitioner assisted by Mrinmoy Dutta, AM Ahmed, Mustafa Khaddam, Imran Uddin Chowdhury and MA Choudhury.
The election petition has been filed through the office of advocate M Dutta, AM Ahmed, MK Hussain with the assistance of Delhi-based advocate Dayaar Singla.
Read: Assam: NH-37 reopens in Dibrugarh after 4 days
WATCH:
Find latest news from every corner of Northeast India at hubnetwork.in, your online source for breaking news, video coverage.
Also, Follow us on-
Twitter-twitter.com/nemediahub
Youtube channel- www.youtube.com/@NortheastMediaHub2020
Instagram- www.instagram.com/ne_media_hub
