Delhi Legislative Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri and six other Congress MLAs have been served a notice by the Delhi High Court to file a reply to the petition submitted by BJP candidates on allegations of rigging the election.

Unfazed, the Delhi Congress claims that the BJP is only “venting its frustration”. “At present, the court has only served a notice. Our MLAs have not been proved guilty. If the BJP is so confident there were fake voters in the electoral roll, why did it not raise its voice before the polls? Why are they waking up so late?” asked Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief J P Agarwal.

According to the Election Commission rules, any candidate can file a petition in the High Court within 45 days of the announcement of results. The results were declared on December 3 and the BJP candidates filed the petition on January 21. Last month, the Delhi BJP had also submitted a CD containing a list of over 11 lakh fake voters in the Delhi electoral roll to the Chief Election Commissioner.

The BJP, meanwhile, is now considering further legal action. “We were called by Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer to discuss the issue. However, we are considering challenging the Assembly polls in court as it is very clear that the elections were fought on the basis of a rigged electoral roll,” said Delhi BJP president O P Kohli.

Shastri had contested the election from Mehrauli. The BJP candidate Sher Singh Dagar was a mere 1,008 votes behind Shastri in the tally. “There were nearly 10,000 duplicate voters in the Mehrauli electoral roll, while the winning margin is merely 1,000. We have requested the court to announce Sher Singh Dagar as the actual winner on these grounds,” said Dagar’s advocate Vivek Goyal.