MP HC seeks reply from ECI on Digvijaya Singh's plea challenging LS poll in Rajgarh

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking its reply on a plea filed by former chief minister Digvijaya Singh alleging irregularities in the Lok Sabha elections held in Rajgarh, where the veteran Congress leader lost to the BJP's Rodmal Nagar by 1,46,089 votes.

Confirming it, Congress Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Vivek Tankha said the court has issued a notice to the Election Commission and the returning officer for the Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency.

The court has sought their reply on the petition. "We have made the ECI and the returning officer (Rajgarh LS seat) party in the case. It's a case about the authenticity of the EVMs, which is why, we have made the ECI a party," Tankha, who represented Digvijaya Singh in the court, told IANS.

On July 16, Digvijaya Singh had filed a petition in the High Court alleging irregularities in the Lok Sabha election in Rajgarh.

In his petition, Singh alleged irregularities and has highlighted the sequence of how they occurred. He had also alleged that election norms were not followed in the constituency.

Singh had earlier accused the returning officer of not complying with the directives of the Election Commission. This is not the first time that Singh has questioned the EVMs or irregularities in the elections.

It was Singh's second consecutive loss in the Lok Sabha elections after Bhopal in 2019 against the BJP's Pragya Singh Thakur.

The Congress was expecting to win at least three to five Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, including Rajgarh and Chhindwara, which used to be the bastion of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath. However, the grand old party drew a blank as the BJP swept all the 29 seats in the state.