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Journalism of Courage
Kerala High Court on Monday declared the election of CPI(M) legislator A Raja from Devikulam Assembly constituency in the state’s Idukki district as null and void on the ground that he was not eligible to contest from the seat reserved for members of the Scheduled Caste (SC).
The high court was acting on a petition moved by Congress candidate D Kumar who had lost the 2021 election to Raja. Kumar had approached the court saying that Raja did not belong to an SC community and is a Christian who is ineligible to contest from the constituency reserved for SC citizens. However, the court refused to consider Kumar’s plea requesting to declare that he won the Devikulam seat.
Kumar, who lost to A Raja for 7,848 votes, argued that the latter was born to Christian parents belonging to the Church of South India (CSI) and was baptised. Raja married a Christian woman and the family follow the Christian faith, frequently attending services at the church. Hence, he was not eligible to contest from the SC seat.
Devikulam had been represented by CPI(M) leader S Rajendran since 2006. However, in 2021 the party decided to field Raja. The high court verdict, even if it is upheld by the apex court, would not impact the LDF government in Kerala which has 99 members in the 140-strong Assembly.
Raja and the CPI(M) are yet to react to the high court verdict.
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