Kirori Singh Bainsla, the face of the twin Gurjjar agitations in Rajasthan who was in the fray from the Sawai Madhopur-Tonk constituency in Rajasthan in the Lok Sabha election, on Monday filed a petition in the Rajasthan High Court against Congress’s Namo Narain Meena who edged Bainsla out by just 317 votes.

Bainsla has alleged that Meena, now a minister of state, used unfair means to win the election and has requested that the election be declared void. He has also sought a recount.

Bainsla appeared in court personally to file the petition. His advocate Poonam Bhandari said, “We believe that this election was won by not one, but several unfair means, and have thus challenged it. The allegations include malpractice while counting as well as the appointment of officers in the constituency to aid Meena.”

According to Bhandari, even the re-counting process in the Sawai Madhopur-Tonk election was not conducted properly. “We had requested a complete recount of all votes there, but it was done only at a few booths,” said Bhandari.

He added that in booth 114 in Bamanwas, the required Form 17(c) was filled as ‘nil’. “Since it was filled nil, the votes should not have been counted. There, however, Meena secured 759 votes, which made a huge difference in the result,” Bhandari maintained. The petition also alleges that Meena community officers posted in the constituency were partial to the Congress candidate. “More than 100 Meena officers were posted on election duty in the constituency, ” said Bhandari.