JABALPUR: A BJP functionary has filed a petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court accusing Congress MLA Ghanshyam Singh of concealing information about a criminal case in his election affidavit, and seeking to void his Datia assembly bypoll win.
Singh defeated BJP candidate Ashutosh Tiwari by over 7,000 votes in the Datia bypoll held on July 30.
The petition, filed by BJP functionary and advocate Deepak Belpatri, claimed that while Singh disclosed two criminal cases in his election affidavit, he omitted information about another case registered in 1991.
The petitioner has sought annulment of Singh's election on that basis. The petition is likely to be heard next week.
According to the petition, a demonstration and road blockade took place in Datia in 1991 to protest the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and police filed an FIR against 22 individuals, including Singh.
The petitioner claimed that Singh did not mention the case in the affidavit filed during the July bypoll. He demanded that Singh's election be declared void due to concealment of criminal record information in the poll affidavit.
Meanwhile, Ghanshyam Singh told reporters in Datia that the case referred to in the petition is about 35 years old and that he was not yet fully aware of the petition, nor was he officially informed by police or the court.
The MLA termed it a "conspiracy" by his opponents and said he will not be intimidated by such actions. In the 2023 assembly elections, Congress candidate Rajendra Bharti defeated erstwhile state home minister Narottam Mishra by over 7,700 votes from Datia seat.
The bypoll was necessitated due to the termination of Bharti's assembly membership, after a Delhi court in April this year sentenced him to three years' imprisonment in a fraud case.
Congress fielded Ghanshyam Singh, who faced 19 other candidates, including Ashutosh Tiwari of the BJP and Damodar Singh Yadav of the Azad Samaj Party.
The BJP did not give a ticket to Narottam Mishra this time, sparking widespread protests from his supporters.