The Supreme Court on Friday accepted a petition seeking the scrapping of the election of Minister for Legislative Affairs D Sridhar Babu from the Manthani constituency, Karimnagar district.
The petition was filed by the losing candidate of the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), Putta Madhukar, in the 2009 elections. Madhukar has charged Sridhar Babu of indulging in electoral malpractices, and misleading the Election Commission (EC) about his election expenditure, among other things.
In his petition, Putta Madhukar appealed to the Apex Court to set aside Sridhar Babu's election, claiming that the minister had indulged in expenditure beyond the limits set by the EC.
The petitioner listed certain incidents, including the spending of excess money, and the seizure of wall-posters by authorities during the election period, as proof for his contentions.
He appealed to the court to declare Sridhar Babu's election as null and void, and to declare him as the winning candidate instead.
Accepting the petition, the court posted it for hearing to a further date.
Earlier, Putta Madhukar had filed a similar petition in the AP High Court, but Sridhar Babu had refuted these allegations.