The Bombay High Court on Monday issued summons to Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Waikar in response to a petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar challenging Waikar’s election to the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat.
Amol Kirtikar had narrowly lost to Waikar, who is aligned with the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, by just 48 votes. Waikar received 452,644 votes, while Kirtikar garnered 452,596 votes.
In his petition filed earlier this month, Kirtikar requested the High Court to declare Waikar’s election “null and void” and sought to be declared the winner of the constituency.
Justice Sandeep Marne issued summons to Waikar and the 19 other respondents (the remaining candidates from the constituency) and scheduled the matter for a hearing on September 2. “Issue summons to respondents returnable on September 2,” the court stated.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate claimed in his plea that he had requested a recount of the votes on the counting day due to discrepancies. He alleged serious lapses by poll officials during the counting process that materially affected the results.
Kirtikar’s plea asserted, “The Election Petitioner (Kirtikar) is aggrieved due to the improper reception of void votes cast by 333 impersonators in place of genuine voters, along with breaches of rules/orders related to the counting process by ECI officials, which materially affected the election results.”
He also claimed that the returning officer exhibited “high-handed hastiness and palpable arbitrariness” during the vote counting and requested the court to summon video recordings of the entire counting process.
This is the second petition challenging Waikar’s election. Last month, Bharat Shah from the Hindu Samaj Party, also a candidate from the same constituency, filed a petition against Waikar. Shah’s plea was heard last week before a division bench, which directed Shah to file an election petition and seek a hearing before the appropriate bench.
