The Manipur High Court on Thursday set aside the election of Y Surchandra Singh as the MLA of Kakching Assembly Constituency in the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly, for filing a false affidavit.

The election of Surchandra was declared as null and void by the single judge bench headed by Justice M V Muralidharan. The result was declared void under section 100(1)(d)(i) of the RP Act. The bench also declared that the petitioner, BJP candidate M Rameshor, duly elected as the new MLA from Kakching constituency.

Formerly, a Congress candidate Surchandra has defeated Rameshor by 630 votes in the state assembly polls held in 2017. However, he later joined the saffron party.

Rameshor had moved the court alleging that Surchandra did not disclose full particulars of his assets and liabilities in the affidavit.

As per reports, it was alleged that he failed to disclose vital information pertaining to non-agricultural lands, loans or dues to bank/financial institutions and deposits in bank accounts of his spouse.

Reportedly, the court came to a finding that though Surachandra contended that he has not concealed any material information in his nomination papers, nothing has been produced to establish his case.

It needs to be mentioned here that Surachandra was already disqualified from the membership of the Manipur Legislative Assembly under the Anti-Defection Law.

In the 2017 elections, Surchandra was declared as the successful candidate with 11133 votes, whereas the petitioner Rameshor gained 10503 votes. Hence, upon the findings that the election of the first respondent is declared as null and void, the petitioner is entitled to be declared as an elected member of 37-Kakching Assembly Constituency.

The Congress, which had won a total of 28 seats to emerge as the single largest party in the 60-member Manipur house after the 2017 polls, saw members deserting it from time to time. The state now has a BJP government.