Kangana Ranaut's Mandi Lok Sabha Election Challenged: HC Issues Notice

On Wednesday, July 24, 2024, the Himachal Pradesh High Court issued a notice to Kangana Ranaut, the BJP Lok Sabha member from Mandi. This notice is in response to a petition by a resident of Kinnaur, who claims his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha constituency were wrongly rejected and is seeking to have Kangana's election overturned.

Justice Jyotsna Rewal issued the notice and directed Kangana Ranaut to respond by August 21.

Kangana Ranaut won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat by defeating Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh with a margin of 74,755 votes. She received 537,002 votes, while Singh got 462,267 votes.

Layak Ram Negi, the petitioner, is seeking to overturn Kangana Ranaut's election. He argues that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected by the returning officer, the Deputy Commissioner of Mandi, and has included the officer in his complaint.

Mr. Negi, a former forest department employee who took early retirement, submitted a "no dues certificate" from the department along with his nomination papers to the returning officer.

However, he was given a day to produce the "no due certificate" from the electricity, water and telephone departments and when he submitted them, the returning officer did not accept them and rejected the nomination papers.

He pleaded that he could have won the election had his papers been accepted and said that the election be set aside.

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