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The poll victories of three Congress Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections have been challenged before the Kerala High Court.
Through four petitions, the elections of Indian National Congress (INC) MLAs Sebastian MJ, Sajeev Joseph and Manoj Moothedan have been challenged. These matters briefly came up before the Court on Monday, before different Benches.
Two petitions have been filed - one by Abesh Alosious and one by Viji George - challenging the election win of MLA Sebastian MJ from the Poonjar constituency.
Sebastian had won the seat by defeating Kerala Congress (M)'s Sebastian Kulathunkal by a margin of 6,693 votes.
The petitions were listed before Justice S Manu, who granted two weeks time to cure certain defects flagged in the petitions by the Court's Registry.
The election petition against MLA Sajeev Joseph's win from the Irikkur constituency has been filed by Kerala Congress (M) candidate Mathew Kunnappally. Kunnappally had lost to Joseph by a margin of 42,426 votes.
The petition challenges the election on the ground that Joseph's nomination paper was not properly accepted.
Justice Easwaran S on Monday granted time to cure the defects in the petition and listed the case for consideration on August 5, Wednesday.
The petition challenging the victory of MLA Manoj Moothedan from the Perumbavoor constituency was listed before Justice G Girish. The petition was filed by one Seena.
Moothedan had secured 75,088 votes to win the constituency, defeating Kerala Congress (M) candidate Basil Paul, who had secured 46,654 votes.
The Court has sought Moothedan's response on the petition and posted the matter next on September 25, 2026.
Seven other MLAs are also facing challenges to their poll victories.
The elections of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State President Rajeev Chandrashekhar, BJP leader V Muraleedharan, CPI(M)’s C Ravindranath and NK Akbar, Congress MLAs Rajan J Pallan and Reji Cheriyan and Independent candidate V Kunhikrishnan have been challenged. These petitions too are pending before the High Court.