Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today heard the
arguments on election petitions challenging the election of
four Congress MPs from Mumbai.
The four MPs are Priya Dutt, Eknath Gaikwad, Gurudas
Kamat and Milind Deora.
The four separate petitions, filed by Shamsher Singh and
others (all voters registered in Mumbai), claim that Congress
manifesto before the last Lok Sabha election sought to appease
the Muslims, by giving various promises.
This amounts to violation of section 123 (3) of
Representation of People Act, which prohibits seeking votes in
the name of caste or religion, said advocate B Joshi,
appearing for the petitioners.
Among other things, manifesto promised that 'Equal
Opportunities Commission' shall be set up at the national
level which would benefit minorities.
Opposing the petitions, advocate Ashutosh Kumbhkoni, who
represented all the four MPs, said that manifesto did not seek
votes.
Secondly, Kumbhkoni said that as per the Supreme Court
judgements, seeking votes in the name of religion means
explicitly urging the voters to vote or not to vote for a
particular candidate because he/she belongs to a certain
religion.
In this case, none of the four elected MPs was a Muslim,
he said.
-PTI
First Published: Friday, August 06, 2010, 21:18