The Orissa High Court on Tuesday declared the election of Congress MlA from the Sundargarh (ST) constituency Jogesh Chandra Singh “null and void”. Singh had won the elections in 2014, polling over 41 per cent (66,138) votes defeating his nearest BJD opponent Kusum Tete by a margin of 12,584 votes.
However, Singh’s election was challenged in the High Court by his BJP rival aspirant Sahadev Xaxa, who had polled only 27,935 votes in a nine-cornered contest. Ajay Patel, a voter of the constituency too had challenged Singh’s election in the High Court.
While both the petitioners had claimed that Singh contested from the reserved constituency by the strength of a fake caste certificate, Xaxa challenged his election claiming that he had submitted false affidavits during the time of filing his nomination papers.
In an analogous hearing of both the petitions, Justice BK Nayak had reserved the verdict after completion of hearings in December last. While a copy of the judgment was not available till this report was prepared, sources said the High Court found discrepancies in the affidavits submitted by Singh during the time of filing his nomination papers.
Since a statutory appeal provision is available in the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court verdict on an election petition, Singh said he would approach the apex court after getting the High Court’s order copy and consultation with his lawyer Pitambar Acharya.
