Political Desk News Edition 24: A Samajwadi Party (SP) worker has filed a petition against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Karhal assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri, SP Singh Baghel, alleging discrepancies in his caste certificate.
Baghel, the Union minister of state for law, is contesting against SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who is making his electoral debut for the state assembly. Karhal seat will go to polls in the third or the seven-phase elections on February 20.
The petitioner, Suresh Chand Soni, who is also a lawyer, said the petition has been registered as miscellaneous case and the MP-MLA court will hear on its maintainability on February 18.
In his petition filed on February 11, Soni has appealed the court to register a case against the BJP leader under sections 420 (Cheating), 467 (Forgery), among others of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of SC/ST Act.
Soni has alleged that the minister got his Schedule Caste (SC) certificate by misleading the authorities and contested elections from Tundla reserved assembly seat in 2017 and from Agra parliamentary reserved seat in 2019. “In the educational certificates of SP Singh Baghel in Madhya Pradesh and Meerut, his caste is recorded as Thakur, an upper caste,” claimed Soni.
Several attempts to contact the Union minister for his comment remained unanswered.
“However, Baghel joined police force in Uttar Pradesh as Other Backward Caste (OBC) and went on to become MP from Jalesar parliamentary seat in 1998, 1999 and 2004 as SP candidate. Moreover, he claimed himself to be OBC also while being sent to Rajya Sabha by BSP in 2014,” Soni said before the court of additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) at Agra.
“Baghel then contested election for UP assembly in 2017 from reserved seat of Tundla (Firozabad) on the basis of SC certificate mentioning his caste as ‘Dhangar’ and became minister in the state cabinet after being elected. He (Baghel) then filed nomination again as SC candidate from reserved Lok Sabha seat of Agra in 2019 and got elected as BJP candidate and became minister in the union cabinet,” said the lawyer.