Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde welcomes Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Ravindra Waikar as he joins Shiv Sene (Shinde) faction, in Mumbai, Sunday, March 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Bombay High Court on Thursday (December 19, 2024) dismissed a petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Amol Kirtikar challenging the victory of Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Waikar in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Mr. Kirtikar lost to Mr. Waikar by a narrow margin of 48 votes from the Mumbai North-West constituency. Mr. Waikar got 4,52,644 votes while Mr. Kirtikar got 4,52,596 votes.
The election petition filed by Mr. Kirtikar has raised questions on the vote-counting process during the Lok Sabha election. He demanded the High Court to invalidate Mr. Waikar’s election due to alleged irregularities during the vote counting process and declare Mr. Kirtikar instead as the rightful winner from the Mumbai North-West constituency. The petition, filed in July 2024, alleged improper reception of void votes cast by 333 impersonators in place of genuine voters, along with breach of rules and orders pertaining to the counting process by the officials of the Election Commission, which has materially affected the outcome of the election results. Mr. Kirtikar sought to be declared as duly elected instead of Mr. Waikar from the constituency.
The petitioner had also contended that there were several breaches of statutory rules and procedures by the Returning Officer (RO), including the denial of Mr. Kirtikar’s counting agents’ right to observe the process at the RO tables, the failure to provide Form 17-C (Part II) for 839 polling booths, and the hasty rejection of Mr. Kirtikar’s request for a recount.
A Single Bench of Justice Sandeep Marne said the petition was dismissed.
Published – December 19, 2024 07:35 pm IST