Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Amol Kirtikar challenging the victory of rival Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Waikar in the Lok Sabha elections.
Kirtikar had lost to Waikar of Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena in the Mumbai North-West constituency by a narrow margin of 48 votes in the parliamentary elections held earlier this year.
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Thursday 19 Dec. 2024
The Uddhav Sena leader alleged discrepancies in the elections and sought the High Court’s intervention to set aside Waikar’s election, declaring it “null and void”. Kirtikar also requested to be declared duly elected from the constituency.
In his plea, the Sena (UBT) leader also alleged significant lapses by election officials overseeing the counting process, which he claimed had impacted the poll outcome.
MP Waikar, through advocate Anil Sakhare, filed an application seeking the dismissal of Kirtikar’s election petition on the grounds of non-maintainability. The court had reserved its order on the matter on December 11.
On Thursday, Justice Sandeep Marne allowed Waikar’s application, thereby dismissing the election petition. The detailed order will be made available later.
During the hearing, Justice Marne identified tendered votes as the primary issue of contention. Tendered votes are allowed when a voter discovers that their vote has already been cast by someone else. Such voters can still cast a ballot if they possess a voter ID and voter slip.
Advocates for Kirtikar, Pradip Patil and Amit Karande, argued that while 333 tendered votes were recorded, 120 were missing and uncounted. They also alleged irregularities, including the denial of seating for counting agents and unauthorised mobile phone usage in the counting centre, though they acknowledged that tendered votes were the main grievance.
Kirtikar had also requested a recount, which was denied. Waikar’s advocate contended that the petition lacked specific averments and failed to establish how the tendered votes favoured the petitioner.
While Waikar secured 4,52,644 votes, Kirtikar garnered 4,52,596 votes.
