Rajya Sabha poll of Himachal MP under HC scanner

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh high court on Wednesday issued notices to the state govt, the Election Commission and recently elected Rajya Sabha MP Anurag Sharma on a public interest litigation alleging that he failed to fully disclose his assets and filed a false affidavit while submitting his nomination papers.A division bench of Chief Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Justice Bipin Chandra Negi sought replies by May 21.During the hearing, the bench asked petitioner Vinay Sharma, an advocate, why an election petition had not been filed in the matter. The petitioner replied that only a rival candidate was eligible to file such a petition.The plea alleges that Sharma, who was elected on March 7, did not furnish complete details of his assets in the affidavit filed along with his nomination papers.It further claimed that at the time of filing his nomination, Sharma was functioning as a govt contractor and had ongoing contracts worth crores with the public works department.The petitioner argued that under Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, a person may be disqualified from contesting an election if they hold an active contract with the govt.