Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Amol Kirtikar, who narrowly lost the Lok Sabha election from Mumbai North West, on Tuesday moved the Bombay High Court challenging the victory of his rival Ravindra Waikar, the Hindustan Times reported.
Waikar, a member of the Shiv Sena faction headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, won the Mumbai North-West seat by defeating Kirtikar on June 4 by 48 votes. Subsequently, Kirtikar as well as other candidates from the seat alleged irregularities in the counting process.
Waikar secured 452,644 votes (451,094 EVM votes and 1,550 postal ballots), while Kirtikar got 452,596 votes (451,095 EVM and 1,500 postal ballots), according to the Election Commission.
Kirtikar, in the petition that he filed on Tuesday, argued that Waikar’s election was void because the poll panel allegedly allowed impersonators to cast 333 votes.
The Uddhav Sena candidate claimed that no one from his side was present to note the numbers from the original Form 17-C (Part II), from which data from tables was compiled and added to the Election Commission’s records, according to the Hindustan Times. He contended that because of this, he or his counting agents could not tally their figures with the final results.
Kirtikar told the court that he was not given a reasonable opportunity to demand a recount of votes, The Indian Express reported. He claimed that his application seeking a recount was recorded to have been filed 12 minutes after the results were declared, which he said was a “total mockery of the statutory rules”.
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