Jolt to Pragya Thakur: MP court dismisses application objecting to petition challenging her LS election
BHOPAL: In a jolt to BJP MP from Bhopal constituency Pragya Singh Thakur, the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur dismissed on Friday an interim application filed by her questioning the maintainability of a petition filed by a Bhopal-based journalist Rakesh Dixit challenging her 2019 Lok Sabha election.
According to Dinesh Upadhyaya, the counsel appearing for the petitioner Rakesh Dixit, the HC dismissed the interim application filed by Thakur over maintainability of the election petition filed by Dixit to challenge her election from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency.
The single-judge bench of Justice Vishal Dhagat had reserved the order on Thakur’s plea on November 30.
On Friday, the HC rejected Thakur’s plea in which she had questioned the authenticity of videotapes of her alleged hate speeches (given during the elections) that were submitted by the petitioner as evidence.
The Bhopal-based senior journalist Rakesh Dixit had in July filed a petition in MP High Court’s main bench in Jabalpur, seeking to set aside her election on the grounds that she had allegedly adopted “corrupt practices” and whipped up communal passions during the election campaign.
In the election petition filed in his capacity as a voter registered in Bhopal, Dixit had also submitted that Thakur during the elections had made false statements and levelled baseless allegations against her Congress opponent and former CM Digvijaya Singh.
The petitioner had submitted videos containing Thakur’s ‘inflammatory’ statements, including one in which she confessed her involvement in the 1992 Ayodhya demolition.
The petitioner had also submitted that during the Lok Sabha poll campaign, Thakur had violated Section 123(3) (seeking votes on the basis of religion) of the Representation of Peoples Act.
Importantly, the 2008 Malegaon blast accused-turned-BJP politician had defeated the Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh by a massive margin of 3.64 lakh-plus votes from the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 general elections.