The Bombay High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on an election petition filed by Amol Kirtikar, Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate in the Lok Sabha election, challenging the victory of Eknath Shinde faction’s Ravindra Waikar from the Mumbai North-West constituency. Waikar won the election by a narrow margin of 48 votes.
Justice Sandeep Marne, while reserving the verdict, noted that the main issue in the petition concerned tendered votes. Tendered votes are cast when a voter finds that someone else has already voted in their name. Under the Indian Election Act, these votes are submitted using Form 17-B and are recorded on ballot paper.
According to Kirtikar, there were 333 such votes. His advocates submitted that 120 tendered votes were missing and were not counted. The plea alleged that some of his counting agents were not allowed to sit at counting tables, and mobile phone use was observed within the counting centre.
However, Waikar’s counsel Anil Sakhare argued that the petition lacked merit.
Kirtikar had lost to Waikar by a narrow margin of 48 votes. While Waikar won with 452,644 votes, Kirtikar got 452,596.
