Rahul Gandhi gets relief from Supreme Court, dismisses petition challenging election from Wayanad

The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition challenging the election of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2019 from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala. A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta dismissed the petition filed by Saritha S Nair, who had moved the top court against the Kerala High Court's October 31, 2019 order, by which Lok Sabha elections in Wayanad and Ernakulam were postponed. His petitions challenging that were dismissed.

On November 2, 2020, Nair's petition challenging the election of Rahul Gandhi was dismissed for non-prosecution by the apex court. Later, an application was filed in the apex court seeking reinstatement of the petition. When the matter came up for hearing before the court on Friday, the bench allowed the application for reinstatement.

Nair's nomination papers to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Wayanad and Ernakulam Lok Sabha seats were rejected by the respective returning officers in 2019 due to his conviction and sentence in two criminal cases related to the solar scam in the state.

Rahul Gandhi won the election from the Wayanad seat of Kerala in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. She won over her nearest rival PP Sunir of Communist of India by a record margin of 4 lakh 31 thousand 770 votes. PP Suneer got 2,74,597 votes while Gandhi got 7,06,367 votes.