MP High Court Nullifies Congress MLA's Win In Vijaypur, Hands Seat To BJP's Ramniwas Rawat

The Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has annulled the election of Congress legislator Mukesh Malhotra from the Vijaypur assembly constituency, declaring former minister and BJP leader Ramniwas Rawat as the duly elected MLA, the NDTV reported.

The verdict came on an election petition moved by Rawat, who had alleged that Malhotra withheld details of criminal cases from his nomination affidavit during the 2024 by-election.

The court ruled that Malhotra had failed to disclose four criminal cases while filing his nomination papers.

Advocate M P S Raghuvanshi, who represented Rawat, noted that the Supreme Court has consistently held that candidates are obligated to fully declare their criminal antecedents at the time of nomination.

Finding this requirement unmet, the court voided Malhotra's election and declared Rawat, who had placed second in the by-poll, as the winner.

Malhotra has been granted one week to approach a higher court, with a possible fifteen-day stay period under consideration.

The ruling upends a result that Congress had celebrated as a significant win. Malhotra had defeated Rawat by 7,364 votes, polling 1,00,469 votes or 50.66 per cent.

Rawat had secured 93,105 votes with 46.95 percent support, in a contest that saw 77.85 per cent turnout among approximately 2.54 lakh voters.

Rawat, a six-time MLA and prominent OBC leader from the Chambal region, had defected from Congress to BJP ahead of the by-poll and was subsequently inducted into Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's cabinet.

Malhotra, 42, had previously served as chairman of the Saharia Development Authority under the BJP before contesting the 2023 assembly election as an independent.

He later joined Congress and won the by-poll, a victory now set aside by the court.

The verdict shifts Vijaypur back to the BJP, further consolidating the ruling party's position in the 230-member assembly where it already holds 164 seats.

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