Himachal HC issues notice to Kangana Ranaut over Mandi election challenge

Kinnaur resident Layak Ram Negi filed a petition in the Himachal Pradesh High Court asking the court to annul Kangana Ranaut's election

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has issued a notice to Kangana Ranaut, BJP’s Lok Sabha representative from Mandi, following a petition by a Kinnaur resident seeking to annul her election. The petitioner claimed that his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha constituency were wrongly rejected.
 

Justice Jyotsna Rewal has directed Kangana Ranaut to respond by August 21.
 

Ranaut secured the Mandi Lok Sabha seat by defeating the Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh with a margin of 74,755 votes. She received 537,002 votes, while Singh won 462,267 votes.

The petitioner, Layak Ram Negi, argued that the rejection of his nomination papers by the returning officer (Deputy Commissioner, Mandi) was improper and included the returning officer in his complaint.
 

Negi, a former forest department employee, said he took premature retirement and submitted a ‘no dues certificate’ from the department along with his nomination papers as an independent candidate to the Returning Officer.
 

The ex-forest department employee stated that he filed his nomination on May 14 and completed all necessary paperwork by May 15.

Negi allege he was given a day to provide the ‘no due certificate’ from the electricity, water, and telephone departments. When he submitted the certificates, the Returning Officer refused to accept them and rejected his nomination documents.

He argued that he could have won the election if his papers had been accepted and requested that the election be nullified.

Happy with 2024 Budget: Kangana Ranaut

Kangana Ranaut expressed her satisfaction with the 2024 Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23, stating that she was "very happy".
 

She said, “Relief fund has been promised for Himachal Pradesh. We are very happy with the Budget.”

[With agency inputs]