In a huge embarrassment to the Vijay Rupani government in Gujarat, the election of senior cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama was declared void by the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday, May 12. Chudasama had been elected by a narrow margin of 327 votes from the Dholka constituency in 2017, nd currently holds several key portfolios including education, law and justice, legislative and parliamentary affairs.
But his rival, Congress leader Ashwin Rathod alleged foul play and claimed that 429 postal ballots had been cancelled illegaly. Rathod had moved HC against Chudasama’s election. The judgment came after the case spanned 73 hearings over a period of more than two years!
According to Ahmedabad Mirror, Returning Officer (RO) and Deputy Collector of Dholka Dhaval Jani was accused of manipulating the process for counting to favour Chudasama. It was also discovered while examining video footage that Jani had spoken over the phone inside the counting center, allegedly with Chudasama’s polling agent Mahendrasing Mandora.
Deccan Herald reported that the court held that the Returning Officer allowed himself “to be used as a tool by the respondent No.2 (Chudasama).” It states that the RO “obediently behaved and danced to the tunes” of Chudasama. Based on the evidence, the court found that RO and the minister “were not only hands in glove for the furtherance of the prospects of the respondent No. 2 in the election in question, there has also been an arrangement of quid pro quo between them.”
Chudasama had earlier moved Supreme Court against Justice Paresh Upadhyay, the judge presiding over the case, when the judge passed an order to continue hearing the case and set aside objections raised by Chudasama’s lawyers. Ahmedabad Mirror reported that Chudasama later tendered an apology for the same.
However, this is hardly Chudasama’s first tryst with controversy. In November 2018, when the Gujarat government was accused of collecting data of Muslim students appearing for class 10 and 12 examinations, Chudasama had confirmed that the practice had been going on since 2013. The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Board (GSHSB), which comes under the Gujarat government’s Education Department, has been collecting this specific data.
The data collection is done from the school authorities in the online board examination forms. The information is accessible through a special username and password-protected software for the filling of students’ examination forms. When the school authorities fill the forms online, a question is asked whether the student is from the minority community. After being answered “Yes”, the user is given only two options, “Muslim” or “Other”.
The entire judgment may be read here:
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