Milkipur election petition: High court asks former BJP MLA to serve copy of withdrawal application to all parties in case

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday directed former BJP MLA Baba Gorakhnath to serve a copy of his application for withdrawal of his election petition in connection with the Milkipur assembly constituency to all the parties in the case and take steps to get it published within a week.

Gorakhnath’s application to withdraw the petition challenging the election of Samajwadi Party leader Awadhesh Prasad from Milkipur in Ayodhya district came up for hearing in the court of Justice Pankaj Bhatia. The withdrawal application was filed on Wednesday.

“The petitioner is directed to serve a copy of this application to all the parties to the petition and to take steps for publication in the official gazette within one week,” the high court said in its order.

“List this application on the 15th day of the said publication,” the court further said.

Awadhesh Prasad’s counsel Devendra Upadhyay requested the court that all parties (respondents) in the case must be informed about the withdrawal application.

Prasad and the other candidates, including independents, were parties in the case.

The Milkipur assembly seat fell vacant in June 2024 after the then SP MLA Awadhesh Prasad was elected to the Lok Sabha from the prestigious Faizabad parliamentary constituency, defeating two-time BJP MP Lallu Singh.

The Election Commission on October 15 announced bypolls to nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, but left out Milkipur due to the court proceedings.

“Counsel for the opposition (Awadhesh Prasad) requested the court that all parties in the case must be informed about the withdrawal application,” said Baba Gorakhnath’s counsel Sandeep Yadav.

“On this request, the court ordered to serve a copy of the withdrawal application to all parties associated with this case and also get the application (to withdraw the election petition) published within a week,” Sandeep Yadav added.

The court has ordered to fix the next date of hearing on the 15th day from the date of publication of the application in a newspaper, Sandeep Yadav said.

Baba Gorakhnath was elected as the BJP MLA from the Milkipur (reserved) assembly seat of Ayodhya district in the 2017 U.P. assembly polls but lost to Awadhesh Prasad in 2022.

The former BJP MLA had filed a petition on April 22, 2022, alleging that Prasad had taken an erroneous oath during the submission of his nomination papers.

The writ alleged that the notary who authenticated Prasad’s documents did not possess a valid licence on the date of attestation.

Gorakhnath got the information about expiry of the licence through a Right to Information application.