Bhupendrasinh Chudasama's election invalid, says Gujarat High Court

In a major embarrassment to the BJP government, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday invalidated the election of state education and law minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama from Dholka Assembly constituency in 2017 on the ground that he won on the basis of "corrupt practices." The court's order came on a petition moved by Congress leader challenging Chudasama's victory on the grounds of several of irregularities and malpractices.

Justice Paresh Upadhyay pronounced the judgment while setting aside the election of Chudasama, a senior BJP leader, on a petition moved by Congress leader Ashwin Rathod, who had lost to Chudasama from Dholka constituency in the Assembly election by a margin of 327 votes with the connivance of election officers. Justice Upadhyay upheld that there were irregularities in the counting process. Justice Upadhyay also rejected Chudasama's plea to stay the order for challenging it in the Supreme Court.

The court has held that the Returning Officer allowed himself "to be used as a tool by the respondent No.2 (Chudasama)." It states that the RO "obediently behaved and danced to the tunes" of the BJP minister. Based on the evidence, the court found that RO and the minister "were not only hands in glove for the furtherance of the prospects of the respondent No. 2 in the election in question, there has also been an arrangement of quid pro quo between them." The court has cited how the RO was promoted as an additional collector and despite instruction from the election commission to conduct a departmental inquiry, the state government didn't proceed.

"This is no less than an unholy nexus of the Returning Officer and the respondent No.2 which further fortifies the findings of this Court qua corrupt practice," the judge has stated.

"Election was declared void by the court due to the illegal procedure followed against the rules of Election Commission and corrupt practice by the Res. No 13 (returning officer Dhaval Jani) who manipulated the records of election/postal ballot by illegal exclusion which was done behind the back of everyone including the General Observer," said advocate Hetu M Sudarshan who represented the General Observer Vinita Bohra, an IAS officer from Rajasthan cadre.

Rathod had accused Chudasama of winning the polls through "corrupt practices" and moved the court against the election result, claiming that the counting of votes was not fair. Rathod had stated in the petition that 429 votes, which were cast through ballot papers, were illegally rejected by the RO Dhaval Jani. While 29 votes, which were in EVMs, were not counted. He said that there was a difference of 29 votes between "1,59,946 votes in the voters turnover report of the returning officer and 1,59,917 votes in the final declaration of result made by returning officer".

Justice Upadhyay has noted that "429 postal ballot papers were illegally rejected/excluded from consideration by the Returning Officer at the time of counting of votes in the election in question, as against the victory margin of 327 votes." The court, however, refused the petitioner's plea that he should be declared victorious in view of Chudasama's election getting void.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel commented, "It is unfortunate that the election of Bhupendrasinhji has been set aside. He is a senior party leader and a cabinet colleague who has been with us since the days of Jan Sangh. We are with him & will cooperate in his fight to approach Supreme Court."