Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging the election of Eknath Shinde’s Ravindra Waikal in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. In his election suit, Kirtikar has asked the High Court to set aside Waikal’s election as Member of Parliament from the Mumbai North West constituency and declare the constituency “void.”
Kirtikar has also sought to be declared the duly elected candidate from the constituency, alleging that he had sought a recount of votes on the very day of the counting of votes due to discrepancies.
Kirtikar lost to Waikal by a narrow margin of 48 votes. Waikal won by 452,644 votes while Kirtikar got 452,596 votes. The complaint alleges various manifest and gross negligence on the part of the election officials deployed to conduct the counting, which had a material effect on the outcome of the election.
“The election petitioner (Kirtikar) has been prejudiced due to improper receipt of invalid votes cast by 333 impersonators instead of genuine voters and violation of rules/orders relating to the counting process by the ECI officials, which has materially affected the outcome of the election,” the plea said.
Kirtikar’s petition states that the poll officers displayed “high-handed haste and apparent arbitrariness” while counting the votes. Kirtikar also sought the court to produce a video recording of the entire vote-counting process while hearing his petition. This is Waikal’s second petition against the elections. A petition was filed against Waikal last month by Bharat Shah of the Hindu Samaj Party, who was also a candidate from the same constituency. His petition is yet to be heard.
Published: Wednesday, July 17, 2024 02:28 AM IST
