MP HC issues notices to BJP leader, EC over Rajgarh LS election petition

Indore (Team Newsbuddy): The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to BJP leader Rodmal Nagar and the Election Commission (EC) seeking their responses on a petition challenging Nagar’s election from the Rajgarh Lok Sabha seat. The petition was filed by Congress’ Digvijaya Singh, who lost to Nagar in his home constituency by a margin of 1.46 lakh votes. In his petition, the Rajya Sabha member has questioned the credibility of the system of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and urged the HC to declare the BJP leader’s election void.
Justice Hirdesh of the Indore bench of the high court issued notices to the Election Commission and Nagar on Wednesday. The single bench then listed the matter for further hearing on September 17. Singh’s petition said that following the directions of the Supreme Court on April 26, the EC had issued an administrative Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on June 1 for testing and verification of “burnt memory and microcontroller of EVMs”. According to the petition, the SOP stated that a technical SOP would be issued separately for necessary compliance, but it has not been done so far, raising doubts over the “suitability” of the testing and verification process of EVMs.
The petition alleged that the EC did not comply with the relevant directions of the Supreme Court and defaulted in implementing them, which “affected the election result of Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency to a large extent”.