Now, petition challenging Dimple Yadav's Kannauj bypoll victory

LUCKNOW: Over one month after she won the by-election in the Kannauj parliamentary constituency unopposed, an election petition, challenging the victory of Samajwadi bahu Dimple Yadav, has been registered in the Allahabad high court on July 21. The petition alleges that candidates were kidnapped to restrain them from filing nomination papers against Dimple Yadav, the wife of UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
According to the petition, Prabhat Pandey, the candidate of the as yet unknown Voters Party International (VPI) was allegedly abducted from the collector's office in Kannauj by goons hired by the Samajwadi Party. Filed under section 81 of the Peoples Representation Act, 1951 in the office of registrar of High Court, the VPI candidate has also lodged complaints in different offices of the Union Government and UP government against the alleged kidnappers, after no action was taken against them. The petitioner has also demanded that the by-elections in Kannauj be declared null and void if the charges are proven and demanded that the election commission demand re-poll.
In the petition, VPI's policy director, Bharat Gandhi has appealed to Prabahat Pandey and CM Akhilesh Yadav to not regard this incident as one of personal rivalry but as a struggle to reform politics and administration. Gandhi also said if the commission takes strict action in this matter against the alleged kidnappers, the case has the potential to become a mile stone in combating criminal politics.