HC issues notice to Praful Patel on election petition

NAGPUR: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has issued a notice to NCP leader and Union Minister Praful Patel on an election petition, accusing him of resorting to foul play.

The petition has been filed by BJP's Shishupal Patle, who lost to Praful in the Lok Sabha elections from Bhandara- Gondia in eastern Maharashtra.

Justice Ambadas Joshi, while issuing the notice yesterday, asked Patel to file a reply by September 18.

Patle has charged the NCP leader with resorting to "foul play and indulging in excessive poll expenditure".

The defeated BJP nominee has also raised a question on the reliability and credibility of the EVMs and quoted foreign experts to support his doubts over their functioning.

Patle had defeated Patel in 2004 Lok Sabha polls, but this time he lost to him by a huge margin of 2,51,925 votes. Patel secured 4,89,814 votes against Patle's 1,58,938.

The amount spent by the NCP leader on public meetings of Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the constituency was not included in his election expenditure accounts by the Returning Officer, the petition alleged.