Gujarat: Congress MLA moves HC on ‘apprehension of harassment’

Advocate Pankaj Champaneri, representing Patel, said the Congress MLA apprehends that he will be subjected to harassment by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the elections “to tilt the scales in their (BJP’s) favour”.

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Patel claimed that the BJP was trying to reduce Congress votes and stop the opposition party from winning a second seat in the Rajya Sabha elections. (File)

Congress MLA from Dhanera, Natha Patel, moved the Gujarat High Court on Thursday on “apprehension that he will be harassed ahead of the upcoming Rajya Sabha election”, after a communication was issued by the Banaskantha collector’s office on March 3 to investigate a complaint regarding the MLA’s 2017 nomination form.

Advocate Pankaj Champaneri, representing Patel, said the Congress MLA apprehends that he will be subjected to harassment by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the elections “to tilt the scales in their (BJP’s) favour”. Patel is seeking that the communication issued by the Banaskantha collector’s office be quashed and set aside, said Champaneri. A division bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and BD Karia recused themselves from hearing the matter when it came up before them on Thursday.

The MLA became apprehensive about his voting rights after a local BJP leader, Mukesh Thakkar, recently filed an application before the collector, alleging that Patel concealed “many things” while filing his affidavit for the 2017 Assembly election. Thakkar demanded that Patel be disqualified as an MLA under section 125 of the Representation of the People Act for not revealing certain “facts” in the affidavit.

Following the complaint, Banaskantha Collector Sandip Sagale ordered the local police as well as the returning officer of Dhanera to initiate an investigation and take necessary steps. Patel claimed that the BJP was trying to reduce Congress votes and stop the opposition party from winning a second seat in the Rajya Sabha elections.

In the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, the BJP has 103 MLAs, the Congress 73, the Bharatiya Tribal Party 2, the Nationalist Congress Party 1 and Independent 1. Two seats are vacant.

With PTI inputs

First uploaded on: 13-03-2020 at 03:17 IST

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