Shiv Sena (UBT) chief moves Bombay High Court to quash BJP MP’s election

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Vinayak Raut, a former MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, on Friday moved the Bombay High Court seeking annulment of the election of Bharatiya Janata Party’s Narayan Rane from the constituency, the newspaper reported. The Indian Express.

A former chief minister, Rane defeated Raut by a margin of 47,858 votes in the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat in the coastal Konkan region for the first time.

Raut claimed that Rane had won the Lok Sabha elections on June 4 through “fraudulent means”, the newspaper reported.

The opposition leader also demanded that Rane be banned from running for office and voting for five years.

Raut has moved the High Court seeking directions to the Election Commission to hold fresh elections for the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat.

While the plea is pending before the court, Raut has sought directions to restrain Rane from continuing as MLA from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.

Last month, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray had also written to the Election Commission seeking a re-run of polls in the constituency, accusing Rane of resorting to “corrupt and illegal practices”, PTI reported.

The letter claimed that BJP workers were campaigning for Rane much after the official end of the campaign period in the constituency, which voted on May 7. The campaign ended at 5 pm on May 5.

“Our client (Raut) has videos in which it can be seen that Narayan Rane’s workers were trying to bribe and intimidate the voters of Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg,” a notice issued by the opposition leader’s lawyer said.