The Lok Sabha election results for the Mumbai North West constituency stirred significant controversy as the Shiv Sena UBT candidate Amol Kirtikar and the Eknath Shinde group’s candidate Ravindra Waikar faced a close contest. Initially, Kirtikar was declared the winner, but later, Waikar won. This led Kirtikar to file a petition in the High Court, which has now delivered a major decision by rejecting his plea.
Kirtikar lost the election by just 48 votes. Earlier, the Election Commission’s website showed that Kirtikar had won by 681 votes. Kirtikar alleged confusion in the counting process and claimed that Waikar’s close associates were present in the counting centre with mobile phones, which they were using during the counting process.
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The Bombay High Court held a hearing on Kirtikar’s petition and ultimately dismissed it. In his plea, Kirtikar alleged that election officials had refused to accept his application for a recount. He also claimed that his agent was not allowed to sit at the election officials’ table and that he was deliberately defeated.
While dismissing the petition of Amol Keertikar, the High Court has observed: "...Petitioner has failed to ensure strict compliance with the requirements of statutory provisions. There is non-compliance with provisions of Section 83(1) (a) of the RP Act... the Election Petition does not disclose the cause of action for making out any of the ground under Section 100(1)(d)(iii) or (iv) of the RP Act and therefore Election Petition cannot be taken to trial and is liable to be rejected by having recourse to the provisions of Order VII Rule 11 of the Code..."
The recount, requested by Waikar, revealed that he led by 75 votes. Questions arose about how Waikar could lead by 75 votes after previously trailing by 681 votes. Following the counting of postal votes, Waikar was declared the winner with a margin of 48 votes.