The Bombay High Court on Monday, July 29, issued a summon to Shiv Sena's Ravindra Waikar on a petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar challenging his election from Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat.
Kirtikar had lost to Waikar, who is part of the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, by a narrow margin of 48 votes. While Waikar got 452644 votes, Kirtikar garnered 452596 votes.
In his election petition filed earlier this month, Kirtikar sought HC to set aside Waikar's election as "null and void".
Kirtikar sought that he be declared as elected from the constituency. A single bench of Justice Sandeep Marne on Monday issued summons to Waikar and the 19 other respondents (remaining candidates from the constituency) and posted the matter for hearing on September 2.
"Issue summons to respondents returnable on September 2," the court said. Kirtikar, in his plea, claimed that on the counting day itself he had filed an application seeking recount of the votes as there was discrepancy. There were various glaring and serious lapses on the part of poll officials deputed to carry out the counting process, which materially affected the results, he claimed in the plea.
"The Election Petitioner (Kirtikar) is aggrieved on account of the improper reception of void votes cast by 333 impersonators in place of genuine voters, along with breach of rules/orders pertaining to the counting process by ECI officials, which has materially affected the outcome of the election results," the plea said.