The Bombay High Court on Monday issued a summons to Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Waikar on a petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar, challenging his election to the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat.
Kirtikar had lost to Waikar, who is part of the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, by a narrow margin of 48 votes. While Waikar got 452,644 votes, Kirtikar got 452,596 votes. In his election petition filed earlier this month, Kirtikar had requested the HC to set aside Waikar’s election as “null and void”.
Kirtikar sought that he be declared elected from the constituency. A single bench of Justice Sandeep Marne on Monday issued summons to Waikar and the 19 other respondents (remaining candidates from the constituency) and posted the matter for hearing on September 2. “Issue the summons to the respondents which may be returned on September 2,” the court said. Kirtikar, in his plea, had claimed that he had filed an application on the counting day itself seeking recount of votes as there was a discrepancy.
There were several glaring and serious lapses on the part of the polling officials appointed to conduct the counting process, which materially affected the results, he alleged in the petition. “The election petitioner (Kirtikar) is aggrieved on account of incorrect receipt of invalid votes cast by 333 impersonators in lieu of genuine voters along with violation of rules/orders relating to counting process by ECI officials, which materially affected the outcome of the election results,” the petition said.
The election officer showed “lofty haste and palpable arbitrariness” during the counting of votes, Kirtikar said and requested the court to summon the video footage of the entire counting process while hearing his plea. This is the second petition challenging Waikar’s election.
Last month, Bharat Shah of the Hindu Samaj Party, also a candidate from the same constituency, had filed a petition against Waikar. Shah’s plea came up before a division bench last week, which said Shah should file an election petition and seek a hearing before the appropriate bench.
