Attempts by the Congress and the pro-CPI(M) Asianet News channel to derail the electoral fortunes of BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar who is contesting as a candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency  fell flat on Tuesday as Kerala High Court dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by the Congress challenging the returning officer’ decision to accept the nomination papers of the BJP candidate.

The petitioner had contended that Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a union minister of state, had filed false affidavits along with his nomination paper and these were accepted by the Returning Officer. Their grievance was that the union minister, one of the billionaires in the country, had suppressed details of his taxable income and hence his nomination paper should not be accepted.

A Bench of Justices VG Arun and S Manu accepted the argument of the Election Commission of India (ECI) that once the nomination of a candidate is accepted by the returning officer, the remedy for the aggrieved person is to file an election petition before the High Court and not a PIL.

“As rightly contended by counsel for Election Commission of India, the remedy of the petitioner, if aggrieved by the acceptance of the affidavit filed by one of the candidates is to challenge the same in an election petition,” the Court said in its order.

Avani Bansal, the petitioner, argued that though she had lodged a complaint with the Returning Officer pointing out the discrepancies in Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s affidavits, there was no “reasoned decision” rendered by the returning officer on that complaint.

“Where is the statutory provision that says that a reasoned order must be given by the returning officer on complaints given to them,” the Court asked the petitioners and ordered the rejection of the petition.

Sources close to the minister told The Pioneer that Asianet News, a channel owned by the former was giving him sleepless nights by telecasting anti-Narendra Modi reports and stories. “Only anti-Modi reports are being aired by the said news channel giving an impression that Rajeev Chandrasekhar is han in glove with the staff. If he dares to take action against the editorial staff, all of them would strike work and the channel would go off the air. The editorial staff members are hardcore CPI(M) fanatics and one of them is a plant by the Church itself,” said the source.