BJP’s Y Erabot Singh sworn-in as Wangkehi MLA after Manipur HC order

Yumkham Erabot Singh of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took oath as the member of Manipur State Legislative Assembly representing 15-Wagnkhei constituency in Imphal on Wednesday following a direction by Manipur High Court.

Manipur Assembly speaker Yumnam Khemchand Singh administered the oath of office to the new MLA in the presence of chief minister N Biren Singh at the Conference Hall of the Manipur Legislative Assembly Secretariat.

Justice M V Muralidaran had in his order on April 15 declared Y Erabot Singh of BJP as the winner of Wangkhei assembly seat and the election of Okram Henry to the seat as null and void.

Erabot Singh, who contested on a BJP ticket in the last state assembly election in 2017, had secured 12,417 votes and came second in the election. With 16,753 votes, the then Congress candidate Okram Henry Singh was declared as a winner.

Singh had petitioned the court that there were discrepancies in the nomination paper filed by Okram Henry, the Congress candidate for the seat, when the election was held in 2017.

The petition also alleged that Henry had provided contradictory information about his educational qualification in his nomination papers for the assembly elections held in the state in 2017 and earlier in 2012.