Kerala HC issues notice to Priyanka Gandhi on BJP candidate's election challenge

Kochi, June 10 The Kerala High Court has issued notice to Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi on a petition filed by the BJP candidate Navya Haridas challenging her victory.

In the notice to Priyanka Gandhi, the High Court has asked her to file her reply in two months.

This notice comes as Priyanka Gandhi is set to arrive in her constituency later this week to campaign for the Congress candidate Aryadan Shoukath, who is fighting the Nilambur assembly by-election.

Nilambur assembly segment comes under the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency.

It was in December that Haridas filed the petition seeking to nullify Priyanka’s victory. In her plea, Haridas alleged that Gandhi concealed certain details in her nomination, which included failing to disclose information about properties owned by her and her family and did not accurately list the cases pending against her.

Haridas further pointed out that this is against the Model Code of Conduct and amounts to corrupt practices.

Priyanka Gandhi was asked to contest the Wayanad by-election by the party high command as her brother Rahul Gandhi decided to vacate the seat on deciding to retain the traditional family seat at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.

Rahul Gandhi had retained the Wayanad seat at the April 2024 Lok Sabha polls with a reduced margin of 3.64 lakhs votes, down from the margin of 4.31 lakhs which he secured at the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

When Priyanka Gandhi contested the by-election in November last year, she won with a margin of 4.10 lakh votes, even when the turnout came down by 10 per cent compared to April 2024.

While Priyanka secured 6.22 lakh votes, the CPI candidate Sathyan Mokeri got 2.11 lakh votes, followed by Haridas, who got 1.09 lakh votes.

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