Madhya Pradesh HC admits petition challenging Union MOS Savitri Thakur's election

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday admitted an election petition filed by Radheyshyam Muvel against Union MOS for Women and Child Development and Member of Parliament from Dhar, Savitri Thakur on grounds of hiding/consealing facts.

The petitioner Radheyshyam Muvel was a Congress nominee for Dhar Lok Sabha seat (ST) but suffered defeat by a margin of over 2 lakh votes. In his plea Radheyshyam demanded that the election of Savitri Thakur as an MP from Dhar seat should be declared null and void on three technical grounds. Thakur did not reveal/disclose fully/complete details in her affidavit at the time of submitting Nomination Papers.

The Jabalpur HC admitted Radheyshyam’s election petition on Friday and the matter is due for further hearing/action.

Radheyshyan Muvel while speaking to DH stated that the Dhar collector, earlier acting as district electoral officer, did not entertain his complaint submitted on April 26 during the election process.

In his complaint against the sitting MP and now Union MOS Savitri Thakur, Muvel pressed some serious allegations.

Following it Muvel moved to the high court which admitted his plea on July 19. Muvel cited three technical grounds including non-disclosure of complete information by Thakur in her affidavit.

Muvel said, Thakur declared her annual income as Rs 38,000 (approx) in 2018-19, while her actual pension income as a Parliamentarian alone was over Rs 1.90 lakh/per month. Besides, she did not furnish No Dues Certificate (related to government house and water dues) as mandated in the nomination form. And thirdly Thakur did not reveal her family income as mandated in the nomination form.

A candidate is required to fill in all the columns but Savitri Thakur allegedly left blank many such columns, accused Muvel.