Congress leader Nana Patole on Friday went to the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court to challenge Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s election to the Lok Sabha from Nagpur, alleging that the electoral process was marred by illegalities.

The petition

Patole’s lawyer, Vaibhav Jagtap, confirmed that the petition had been filed that day. At a press conference in Nagpur, Patole claimed that election officials had not followed the prescribed procedures. He said the Election Commission of India, its chief officers and Gadkari had all been named as respondents.

Background

In the 2019 general election, Gadkari beat Patole in Nagpur by a margin of 1.97 lakh votes. During the campaign, Patole had raised doubts about security at the strongrooms where electronic voting machines were stored.

Nationally, the BJP won 303 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in that election, and Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term as Prime Minister on 30 May 2019.

See also: Indian National Congress | Bharatiya Janata Party | Lok Sabha members

Originally published on 6 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us