Ranchi, July 11: Jharkhand High Court today directed suspended BJP MLA and former minister Ravinder Rai to file issues to defend himself in an election petition filed by the CPI-ML (Liberation) candidate Ram Kumar Yadav.

The court also directed Yadav to list issues to formulate the line of argument in the case.

Yadav challenged the victory of Dhanwar MLA Ravinder Rai alleging that Rai indulged in corrupt practices for winning the last Assembly election in the state. Rai beat Yadav by 3,332 votes to win the Dhanwar seat.

Yadav said polling agents and electronic voting machines had not reached the polling booths on time.

He further said agents connived with Rai’s men to cast votes in his favour. Of the 1,42,581 votes cast in the constituency, Rai secured 42,355 votes while Yadav got 39,023 votes.

Yadav further alleged that in some polling booths 98 per cent votes had been cast in favour of the BJP but yet no re-polling was ordered, whereas in booths where other parties had secured votes, re-polling was ordered.

An FIR was also lodged at the Dhanwar police station by one Damodar Das, who reported that Scheduled Caste voters were forcibly not allowed to vote at some of the polling booths.