Madhya Pradesh High Court Cancels Congress MLA's Election, Declares BJP Ex-Minister Winner

In a dramatic political twist from Madhya Pradesh's Chambal region, the Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has set aside the election of Congress MLA Mukesh Malhotra from the Vijaypur Assembly seat, declaring BJP leader and former minister Ramniwas Rawat as the rightful winner. The decision comes on an election petition filed by Rawat, who alleged that Malhotra had concealed crucial information about criminal cases in the affidavit submitted with his nomination papers during the by-election.

The High Court accepted the petition, ruling that Malhotra had failed to provide complete details of four criminal cases in his nomination affidavit. According to advocate M P S Raghuvanshi, who argued the matter, the Supreme Court has repeatedly mandated that candidates must fully disclose their criminal records while filing nominations. The court found that this requirement had not been met and therefore annulled Malhotra's election. With the verdict, Rawat, who had finished second in the by-poll, now stands declared the MLA from Vijaypur. The court has given Malhotra one week to challenge the order in a higher court, while a possible stay period of fifteen days is under consideration.

The ruling dramatically overturns the result of the 2024 Vijaypur by-election, where the Congress had celebrated a hard-fought victory. Mukesh Malhotra had defeated Ramniwas Rawat by 7,364 votes, securing 100,469 votes or 50.66 percent of the vote share. Rawat had received 93,105 votes with 46.95 percent support. The by-poll witnessed a strong turnout of 77.85 percent among roughly 2.54 lakh voters.

The politics surrounding the contest made the election one of the most watched battles in the region. Ramniwas Rawat, a six-time MLA and a veteran OBC leader from Chambal, had recently left the Congress and joined the BJP. Soon after joining, he was sworn in as a minister in Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav's cabinet during an expansion. The swearing-in itself became a talking point when Rawat unexpectedly took oath twice within half an hour. At 9:03 am he first took oath as a Minister of State, and at around 9:18 am he was sworn in again as a Cabinet Minister. Laughing about the unusual moment later, Rawat said he had "accidentally left out the word 'ka' while taking oath," joking that he had become the first minister in the state to be sworn in twice in thirty minutes.

Rawat's political journey stretches back decades. He first became an MLA in 1990 and served as a minister in the Digvijay Singh government in 1993. He later held the position of General Secretary in the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee and was long regarded as a powerful OBC face of the Chambal region. The BJP placed a significant bet on Rawat during the Vijaypur by-poll after his switch from the Congress.

Mukesh Malhotra's rise in the contest also reflected the shifting loyalties in the region's politics. The 42-year-old postgraduate had earlier served as chairman of the Saharia Development Authority while in the BJP. After not receiving a ticket in the 2023 assembly election, he contested as an independent candidate and finished third with around 44,000 votes. Later, after Rawat joined the BJP, Malhotra moved to the Congress and eventually won the by-election a victory that has now been nullified by the High Court.

The verdict adds another dramatic chapter to the intense political rivalry in Chambal and could have wider political implications in Madhya Pradesh. In the 230-member state assembly, the BJP currently holds 164 seats, the Congress has 65, and one seat belongs to the Bharat Adivasi Party. With the High Court verdict shifting Vijaypur into the BJP column, the ruling party's numbers stand to strengthen further unless the order is overturned in appeal.
For now, a seat that changed hands in a bitter by-poll battle has been reclaimed not in the ballot box, but in the courtroom.