Defeated BJD candidate of Sundargarh (ST) Assembly constituency Kusum Tete has moved the Odisha High Court seeking declaration of the election of his Congress rival Jogesh Kumar Singh as null and void on the charge that the latter had submitted a false caste certificate while filing his nominations.
Tete urged the court to disqualify Singh and declare her as duly elected to the Assembly.
Her petition said that Singh is the legal successor of late Renu Pratap Singh, who is from the Kshyatriya/Khandayat Bhuyan community which is not a ST community. “One of the RTI activists namely Biswajit Thakur obtained information from the office of the Tehsildar, lephripda that as per the amendment laid down, the list of caste certificate and miscellaneous rule 1984 and Notification No. 20173/SSD dt. 6 May 2008 of Government of Odisha, ST/SC Development Department, the caste of Khandayat Bhuyan is not included in the list of scheduled tribe,” said the petition.
The petitioner also has blamed the State Chief Electoral Officer and the Sundargarh Sub-Collector for not taking action against Singh even after a person complained to them in this regard.