Plea challenges Congress MLA's Datia win over criminal case omitted from affidavit

A petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court challenged Congress MLA Ghanshyam Singh's Datia bypoll victory over an alleged affidavit omission in a criminal case. Singh has called the move a political conspiracy.

In Short

• Allegation of nondisclosure of 1991 criminal case in Ghanshyam Singh's Datia election affidavit
• Singh won Datia bypoll defeating BJP's Ashutosh Tiwari by over 7,000 votes
• Singh called plea a conspiracy, said case is 35 years old, not officially informed

A petition has been filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking to have Congress MLA Ghanshyam Singh's election from the Datia assembly seat declared void. The plea alleges that Singh did not disclose details of an old criminal case in his election affidavit.

The plea was filed by BJP leader and advocate Deepak Belpatri and is expected to come up for hearing next week. Singh won the recent Datia bypoll by defeating BJP candidate Ashutosh Tiwari by more than 7,000 votes.

According to the petition, Singh disclosed two criminal cases registered against him at Datia Kotwali police station in his election affidavit, but left out another criminal case registered in 1991. On this basis, the petitioner has sought annulment of his election.

The petition said that in 1991, a demonstration and road blockade were held in Datia to protest the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Police then registered an FIR against 22 people, including Singh, in connection with the case.

Belpatri has alleged that Singh did not mention this case in the affidavit he filed for the July bypoll and has asked the court to declare the Congress MLA's election void for concealing information about his criminal record.

Speaking to reporters in Datia, Singh said the case mentioned in the petition was around 35 years old. He said he was not yet fully aware of the petition and had not been officially informed by either the police or the court.

He described it as a conspiracy by his opponents and said he would not be intimidated by such actions.

Voting for the Datia bypoll ended on July 30 with a turnout of 71.44 per cent. In the 2023 Assembly elections, Congress candidate Rajendra Bharti defeated former state home minister Narottam Mishra by more than 7,700 votes.

The bypoll was held after Bharti's assembly membership was terminated. In April this year, a Delhi court sentenced him to three years in prison in a fraud case, leading to the end of his membership.

Congress fielded Ghanshyam Singh in the bypoll, in which he was among 20 candidates. The contest included Ashutosh Tiwari of the BJP and Damodar Singh Yadav of the Azad Samaj Party. The BJP had not given a ticket this time to Narottam Mishra, a move that led to protests by his supporters.

- Ends