The election of Okram Henry Singh was cancelled by the Manipur High Court
The Manipur High Court on Thursday cancelled the election of MLA Okram Henry who was elected from Wangkhei assembly constituency in the 2017 Manipur assembly polls. The judgement was given by a single-bench of Justice MV Muralidaran to an election petition filed by Yumkham Erabot Singh, the BJP candidate who contested against the Congress's Mr Henry.
Mr Singh alleged that Mr Henry "deliberately misrepresented his educational qualification" and "concealed a criminal case to the Election Commission of India in his affidavit for the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly elections 2017."
The court order citied "false affidavit" submission to the Election Commission and made the petitioner, a second-highest scorer in the 2017 elections, as "duly elected as a member of 15-Wangkhei Assembly Constituency."
In the 2017 assembly election, Mr Henry got 16,753 votes to beat Mr Singh, who won 12,417 votes.
Mr Singh had cited in the petition that Mr Henry filed his highest educational qualification as BA from Punjab University in his nomination, and filed "Class XII from Manipur Public School, CBSE" as highest educational qualification in his nomination in the 2017 election.
Mr Singh said Mr Henry had not disclosed about a criminal case and a narcotics case against him to the Election Commission.
Mr Henry, who contested the 2017 election from Congress, is the nephew of former Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh from Congress. He left the Congress in August last year after resigning along with five other Congress MLAs and joined the BJP.
In September last year, Chief Minister N Biren Singh dropped six cabinet ministers and inducted five new MLAs, including Mr Henry. He held the portfolios of social welfare, cooperation and MAHUD.