Bombay High Court Upholds Union Minister Narayan Rane's Election, Rejects Plea Alleging Corrupt Practice

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday (September 29) rejected an election petition filed by Vinayak Raut, a candidate from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Faction), who challenged the election of BJP leader and Union Home Minister Narayan Rane to the 18th Lok Sabha from the Sindhudurg Constituency.

Sitting at the Kolhapur seat, single-judge Justice Shailesh Brahme upheld Rane's election, stating that the election petition filed by Raut through Advocate Asim Sarode lacked proper requisite pleadings as mandated under the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951.

"I have carefully gone through paragraph nos.5(l) to 5(n) of the Election Petition and the documents annexed in support of those averments. The corrupt practice as alleged in paragraph nos. 5(l) regarding carrying out campaign on May 6, 2024 is very vague and lacks material particulars namely; time, place and identity of the persons who were campaigning. The news reports are also not sufficient to precisely corroborate Raut's claim. Further corrupt practice stated in paragraph no.5(m) pertains to a complaint dated May 16, 2024. It is not sufficient to identify the person, the amount, time or place," Justice Brahme said.

Notably, in the general elections, Rane was declared elected with 4,48,514 votes while Raut secured a total of 4,00,656 votes. In his plea through Raut alleged that Rane and his campaigners, particularly his son Nitesh Rane, breached the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

The plea had alleged that by giving a public speech in the Constituency after the enforcement of the MCC, Rane's son Nitesh breached the MCC and also the section 126 of the Representation of People's Act, which prohibits public speeches during the MCC period.

It was submitted that elections in the said Constituency took place on May 7, however, Rane, his son and also his party workers, continued their speeches, distributing 'gifts' to lure voters etc.

A particular speech, to which, Raut took exception was by Nitesh, who while addressing a group of Sarpanchs reportedly asked for "votes at any cost" and had threatened them of "stopping funds" if they failed to garner more votes for his father.