Bombay High Court dismisses plea challenging Shiv Sena MLA's win in 2024 polls

Jalna: The Bombay High Court has dismissed a Congress leader's petition challenging the election of Shiv Sena MLA Arjun Khotkar in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls, citing that the plea lacked merit.

The plea filed by Congress's Kailash Gorantyal stated that Khotkar was ineligible as he was the chairman of the Jalna Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC).

Gorantyal, who lost to Khotkar from the Jalna assembly constituency in the polls by more than 31,000 votes.

Justice Kishore C Sant of the Aurangabad bench on Monday dismissed the plea.

Gorantyal had approached the high court, making the Election Commission of India and the returning officer parties to the petition, and raised objections to Khotkar's election.

The Congress leader alleged that Khotkar was holding an "office of profit" as chairman of the Jalna Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), which, he argued, made him ineligible to contest the election.

He also contended that the affidavit submitted by Khotkar, along with his nomination papers, was not in the prescribed format.

Advocate S B Deshpande presented an argument on behalf of Khotkar.

After hearing both sides, the court observed that the alleged non-disclosure was not a material fact and did not attract disqualification under Article 191 of the Constitution of India.

It noted that the objections raised were of a trivial and technical nature and that there was no evidence to suggest that voters were misled due to any such non-disclosure.

Even if there was any suppression, it did not materially affect the outcome of the election, the court held, dismissing the petition stating that it lacked merit.