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Malkangiri MLA unseated

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday declared the election of Congress MLA Nimai Charan Sarkar from Malkangiri Assembly constituency as “void”. Sarkar had won the 2004 Assembly polls by defeating the then BJP nominee and current national general secretary of Samajwadi Party Arabinda Dhali by a margin of only 253 votes.

Single judge bench of Justice A S Naidu disposing of an election-related case filed by Dhali, annulled Sarkar’s victory on the grounds of several discrepancies in the election process. The court observed that the voting in the Assembly constituency was not free and fair while the provisions of Conduct of Election Rules were not complied with. The court after verifying the poll-related documents was of the opinion that the counting of votes was not done properly and the requisite records were not properly maintained. It also came to the notice of the court that there were differences in the number of votes polled as indicated from electoral voting machines with that of the Form 17-C that maintains the votes polled in different booths. Dhali after losing the election had challenged the poll results in the High Court in May 2004. The simultaneous polls for Assembly and Lok Sabha were held in the district on April 20, 2004. In his petition, Dhali had urged the court to annul the poll results as it was not held as per the Rules.

He had alleged that votes of parliamentary and Assembly elections were not properly separated as a result the Assembly votes of in at least three booths were counted as Lok Sabha votes. This discrepancy came to the notice of the High Court after vetting the documents, said senior HC lawyer N C Panigrahy, who was the petitioner for advocate.

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