Neena Verma (19 October 1957) is an Indian politician from
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...
state. She is a member of the
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
(BJP) and a Member of the
Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly
The Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha or the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Madhya Pradesh state in India.
The seat of the Vidhan Sabha is at Bhopal, the capital of the state. It is housed in the ''Vidh ...
for
Dhar Vidhan Sabha Constituency.
Her husband is
Vikram Verma
Vikram Verma (born 23 January 1944) is an Indian politician and a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. He formerly served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Rajya Sabha. He also served as a Minister in the ...
, a senior BJP politician and former Union Minister.
Political career
Verma ran on the BJP ticket in the
2008 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Election
The 2008 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election was declared by the Election Commission of India on 14 October 2008. Elections for 230 seats took place on 27 November 2008, and counting started on 8 December. The Bharatiya Janata Party won ...
from
Dhar
Dhar is a city located in Dhar district of the Malwa region in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of the Dhar district. Before Indian independence from Great Britain, it was the capital of the Dhar ...
Vidhan Sabha Constituency.
Balmukund Goutam of the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...
(INC) won the seat by two votes in the first vote count; he received 50,507 votes against Verma's 50,505. Verma and her party requested to recount the votes, and she was then declared winner by only one vote.
The final tally of votes was 50,510 to 50,509.
Goutam challenged Verma's election and the recounting process in the
Madhya Pradesh High Court
The Madhya Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the state of Madhya Pradesh which is located in Jabalpur. It was established as the Nagpur High Court on 2 January 1936 by Letters Patent dated 2 January 1936, issued under Section 108 the '' ...
in 2009. He petitioned that there was misconduct in counting the
postal votes
Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system.
In an ele ...
. The Indore Bench of the High Court ruled in favour of Goutam on 19 October 2012, and declared Verma's election void on the grounds of non-compliance of the provisions of the
Representation of Peoples Act.
Verma filed a recrimination petition against the eligibility of Goutam, in that he did not reveal his criminal background in his
affidavit
An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...
at the time of filing his nomination for the assembly election in 2008, leading to a violation of section 33 (A) and section 123 of Representation of the People Act. However, the Bench rejected the petition on 23 November 2012. Goutam was declared elected by the Court on 14 August 2013 and took his oath of office on 24 September 2013.
The BJP gave a ticket to Verma to contest from the Dhar Constituency in the
2013 state assembly election, held on 25 November. Her main opponent was Balmukund Goutam, whom she defeated with a margin of 11,482 votes.
On 20 November 2017, the Madhya Pradesh High Court nullified Verma's election after it was discovered that she left several columns in her affidavit blank.
Personal life
Verma is married to Vikram Verma, who is a senior BJP politician, former leader of opposition in the
Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly
The Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha or the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Madhya Pradesh state in India.
The seat of the Vidhan Sabha is at Bhopal, the capital of the state. It is housed in the ''Vidh ...
and former
Union Cabinet
The Union Council of Ministers is the Cabinet (government), principal executive organ of the Government of India, which serves to aid and advise the President of India in execution of their functions.Article 74 of the ''Constitution of India' ...
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports. She owns of land in Dhar as per an affidavit submitted by her husband while filing a nomination for
Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...
in 2006. She resides in Bangiey Bhopal,
Bhopal
Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...
, capital city of Madhya Pradesh.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verma, Neena Vikram
1960 births
Living people
People from Dhar
People from Ajmer
Madhya Pradesh MLAs 2013–2018
Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Madhya Pradesh
21st-century Indian women politicians
Women members of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly