Mumbai North West: Collector Denies Shiv Sena (UBT) Candidate Amol Kirtikar's Request For CCTV Footage Of Counting Center

The Mumbai Suburban District Collector has refused to provide CCTV footage from the counting centre to Shiv Sena Thackeray’s North West Lok Sabha constituency candidate Amol Kirtikar. Information is coming out that the District Magistrate has given the reason that providing CCTV to the candidate at the counting centre is not in accordance with the law. Amol Kirtikar has alleged that there has been a discrepancy in the counting of all the votes. Apart from this, he requested the Election Returning Officer to re-count the votes of the EVM machine. However, on the day of results, the Election Decision Officers refused to re-count the votes.

Four days after the results, Amol Kirtikar wrote a letter to Mumbai suburban collector Rajendra Kshirsagar to obtain CCTV footage as per the instructions of the Election Commission. Kirtikar said that there was confusion at the counting centre and he asked for CCTV footage of what happened at the counting centre between 4 pm and 8 pm on June 4. After the request letter given by Amol Kirtikar, now the collector and district election officer Rajendra Kshirsagar has refused to provide the CCTV footage of the counting centre.

Citing the Election Commission of India's directive dated 18/07/2023 and provisions under Rule 93 (1) of the Election Rules, 1961, Mumbai Suburban District Collector Rajendra Kshirsagar informed Amol Kirtikar in writing that it is not possible to provide the requested CCTV footage/video coverage related to the vote counting for Mumbai North West on 04/06/24.

When contacted by Lokmat, Amol Kirtikar said, "This result is absolutely unacceptable to Shiv Sena (UBT). The role of the election officer, Vandana Suryavanshi, is highly suspicious, and we will soon be taking this matter to court. My agents were counting the votes, and around 3:30 PM, I was leading by 651 votes, indicating I was winning the election. Suddenly, they stopped the counting for about two hours. By around 3:30 PM, 26 rounds of counting were completed, but the results were not announced. At approximately 7:53 PM, they declared that I had lost—how is that possible? I have serious objections to this vote counting and suspect tampering. District Collector Rajendra Kshirsagar, under political pressure, cited Election Commission rules to justify his inability to provide the footage. This has raised various doubts and suspicions in our minds."

Amol Kirtikar is preparing to go to court to challenge the North West Mumbai Lok Sabha result given by the election officer. Amol Kirtikar has also written to the Central Election Commission and the State Election Commission in this matter.

Meanwhile, the Vanrai police have registered an FIR against Mangesh Vasant Pandilkar, a relative of Ravindra Waikar—the Shiv Sena candidate who won the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat by 48 votes—for allegedly using a mobile phone inside the centre in Goregaon where votes were being counted on June 4. The cops also booked Dinesh Gurav, an ENCORE (poll portal) operator with the Election Commission (EC), for allegedly giving his device to Pandilkar. 

After Waikar defeated Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar by a razor-thin margin, the latter wrote to the police seeking a recount of votes. He also stated that he would file an election petition in court for the same. The complainant in the case is Suchitra Krunal Amle Patil, who is an additional assistant election adjudicating officer. She was deployed at the NESCO centre in Goregaon for counting-related work. On June 4, Patil received a complaint that a mobile phone was found inside the centre, which is a strict no-no.

Only ENCORE operators, returning officers and a few other EC officials are allowed to take their mobile phones inside centres during the counting of votes.

A police officer said, “We have requested CCTV footage from the returning officer of the Election Commission. We will check call records to see whom Pandilkar had called and for what purpose. The reason why he was using the mobile phone inside the centre will also be ascertained. We will also arrest Pandilkar and Gurav for violating EC rules and guidelines during the counting of votes.”