Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday issued summons to Eknath Shinde faction leader Ravindra Waikar on a petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar challenging his election in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.
About The Election Petition
The election petition filed by Kirtikar on July 16 urged the high court to set aside Waikar's election as the member of parliament from Mumbai North-West constituency and to declare the same as "null and void". Kirtikar has further sought that he be declared as the duly elected candidate from the said constituency. His plea claims that he has sought recount of the votes in the counting day itself as there was discrepancy.
Kirtikar had lost to Waikar by a narrow margin of 48 votes. While Waikar won with 452644 votes, Kirtikar got 452596 votes.
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Summons Issued To Waikar
Justice Sandeep Marne, on Monday, issued summons to Waikar and 19 other respondents (other candidates who contested from the constituency) and kept the matter for hearing on September 2. “Issue summons to respondents returnable on September 2,” Justice Marne said.
The plea claims that there were various glaring and serious lapses on the part of the Elections Officials deputed to carry out the counting process, which have resulted in the result of the elections being materially affected.
“The Election Petitioner (Kirtikar) is aggrieved on account of the improper reception of void votes cast by 333 impersonaters in place of genuine voters, along with breach of rules / orders, pertaining to the counting process, by ECI officials, which has materially affected the outcome of the election results,” the plea read.
The returning officer showed "high-handed hastiness and palpable arbitrariness" at the time of the counting of votes, Kirtikar’s plea alleged. Kirtikar also sought the court to summon the video recordings of the entire counting process while hearing his plea.
This is the second petition against Waikar's election. Last month, a petition was filed agiang Waikar by Bharat Shah from the Hindu Samaj Party, also a candidate from the same constituency. Shah's plea came up for hearing before a another bench last week which said Shah would have to file an election petition and seek hearing before the appropriate bench.
