Mumbai: One of the candidates from Mumbai North West Constituency who lost to Shinde faction’s Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Waikar, approached the Bombay High Court on Friday seeking to declare Waikar’s win as void alleging that the same was due to “fraud”.
The petition filed by Bharat Khimji Shah, 54, who represented the Hindu Samaj Party, has sought that the court call for relevant records and proceedings from the Election Commission of India (ECI) and after going into legality of the same, “hold and declare the counting of votes and the declaration of results of the 27-Mumbai North West Constituency dated 04/06/2024 as void”.
The Parliamentary elections were held on May 20 in the city and the results for the same were declared on June 4. From the Mumbai North West Constituency, Waikar was declared as a winner with a margin of mere 49 votes. Initially, Amol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) was declared a winner, however, after recounting of votes, Waikar was declared as the winner.
The plea filed through advocate Asim Sarode alleges that while the counting of votes was ongoing at NESCO in suburban Goregaon, Waikar’s daughter Prajakta Waikar- Mahale was inside the polling centre using a mobile phone allegedly belonging to Dinesh Gurav, one of the temporary staff of the district election office of the Mumbai suburb district. She was sitting at 2 feet distance from the Returning Officer Vandana Suryavanshi.
Shah has alleged that despite him raising a verbal complaint, the ECI staff, no cognisance was taken. Subsequent , a complaint was registered in the name of tehsildar and Shah was shown as a witness. Waise, one Mangesh Pandilkar was also present inside the polling centre using a mobile phone and allegedly the same mobile was used to generate OTP to unlock the EVM to count the postal ballot.
The police was present at the site, and one of the police official constantly received phone calls from Waikar, the plea alleged. The vote counting was not “free and fair” as is expected in accordance to the Representation of People’s Act. Also, it was not in line with the Model Code of Conduct issued by the ECI.
“The Petitioner thinks that Mr. Ravindra Waikar is a person whose election win is significantly tainted and prima facie under the cloud of some conspiracy based activities done in an organised manner,” the plea alleges. It adds, “Due to this incident, some serious concerns have been further raised about the transparency in the electoral process.”
The plea also seeks that the ECI be directed to provide CCTV footage of June 4 of Mumbai Nortrh West Constituency NESCO Centre polling station. The plea will come up for hearing in due course of time.
