HC issues summons to Narayan Rane on Sena (UBT) leader's plea seeking cancellation of his election

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Vinayak Raut has filed an election petition in Bombay HC, claiming that BJP MP Narayan Rane had won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by "fraudulent means". File pic

The Bombay High Court (HC) on Friday issued a summons to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Narayan Rane on Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Vinayak Raut's plea seeking cancellation of the former's election from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency.

Rane defeated Raut, a two-term Member of Parliament (MP), by a margin of 47,858 votes on June 4 in his debut election for Lok Sabha. He polled 4,48,514 votes, while Raut secured 4,00,656 votes. Narayan Rane's son Nilesh had won the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat in 2009 as the Congress candidate.

Last month, Raut had filed an election petition in the high court, claiming that Rane had won the polls by "fraudulent means", and demanded the cancellation of the BJP leader's election from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat. He also demanded that Rane be banned from contesting elections and voting for five years.

Based on the plea, a single bench of Justice S V Kotwal issued summons (notice) to Rane and sought his response to the plea.

The court has posted the matter for further hearing on September 12.

Raut, in his petition, also sought directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for fresh or re-election in the constituency.

Pending the hearing, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader has sought direction to restrain Rane from continuing as the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg MP.

He alleged that after the poll campaign ended, a video surfaced in which Rane's supporters were seen distributing money to voters by showing them an electronic voting machine (EVM) and asking them to vote for the BJP leader through "illegal and unfair" means.

Raut sought direction from the court to constitute an independent committee to investigate the videos.

He cited that as per the Representation of People Act, 1951, the campaign activities are to be halted 48 hours before elections. However, the acts of Rane and his campaigners were in "clear violation of statutory provision", Raut alleged.

In May, Raut filed a complaint before the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra over the issue. However, when there was no response, Raut moved HC.

Rane has served in the previous Narendra Modi government as the Minister of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

(With PTI inputs)