Jaipur, July 29 (IANS) The Rajasthan High Court has dismissed the Election Commission of India’s application seeking to be excluded as a party in the petition challenging the 2024 Jaipur Rural Lok Sabha election results. Justice Vinod Kumar Bharwani ruled that the ECI, Chief Election Commissioner, District Election Officer, and Returning Officer will continue to be parties to the case.
The court observed that the victory margin between Congress candidate Anil Chopra and BJP candidate Rao Rajendra Singh was 1,615 votes, while the number of cancelled postal ballots exceeded that margin, making the Election Commission a necessary party to the proceedings.
During the hearing, the court noted that on the day of the election results (June 4, 2024), the Returning Officer informed the petitioner that 1,225 postal ballots had been cancelled. However, information obtained later through the Right to Information (RTI) Act showed that 2,738 postal ballots had been cancelled.
The court observed that both figures were provided by the Election Commission for the same day, and the discrepancy forms the core of the dispute between the two candidates.
“Given these circumstances, the Election Commission is a necessary party to the case; therefore, its application is dismissed,” the court ruled.
The Election Commission had argued that under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, it could not be made a party to an election petition, contending that the dispute was solely between the contesting candidates.
Opposing the plea, counsel for Congress candidate Anil Chopra argued that the victory margin was smaller than the number of cancelled postal ballots, making the Commission’s role crucial in explaining the discrepancies.
The petitioner also pointed to the conflicting figures regarding rejected postal ballots as the primary basis for challenging the election result.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Rao Rajendra Singh defeated Congress candidate Anil Chopra from the Jaipur Rural constituency by 1,615 votes. Following the declaration of results on June 4, 2024, Chopra alleged irregularities in the counting process and staged a sit-in protest inside the Returning Officer’s room.
He demanded a recount of votes, but election officials rejected the request and instead carried out only a re-tally of the figures. After leaving the counting centre, Chopra addressed his supporters, claiming that despite receiving over six lakh votes, he did not accept the outcome and alleged that administrative actions had influenced the election result.
The election petition challenging the outcome is currently pending before the Rajasthan High Court.
–IANS
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