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Former Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray claimed that the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena has won the Mumbai North West constituency and the party will go to court about this issue.
The constituency witnessed a close fight between both Shiv Sena factions - Ravindra Waikar from Eknath Sinde's Shiv Sena and Amol Kirtikar from Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT). After the final result, Waikar was declared winner by just 48 votes. "We have won the seat contested by Amol Kirtikar (Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate from Mumbai North West)..and we will definitely go to court...," Thackeray said speaking at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday. Questioning the Election Commission's integrity after the Mumbai daily report, Thackeray said, "Election Commission has been easily compromised..." Aditya Thackeray further said that if polling had not been held through EVMs, the Bharatiya Janata Party would not have crossed even 40 seats. "If there was no EVM, BJP would not have won 240...They would not have won even 40 seats," he said. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab who was also present at the press conference said that the irregularities in vote counting started after the 19th round of Amol Kirtikar's vote. Sharing further details about the malpractice, Parab said, "There are a total of 14 tables at the counting place of every MP's seat..every EVM counting table has an ARO i.e. assistant returning officer...After every round of counting, the final information is given to the ARO..but after 19 rounds of counting, the ARO was not informed..." After counting, the announcement of votes was not made after 19 rounds, Parab said. Parab even said that the election officer was getting "repeated calls" on his phone and was frequently visiting the washroom. Parab also questioned why polling staff Dinesh Gurav allowed Pandilkar to enter the counting station. Raising questions on the Returning Officer's conduct, Parab said, "Look at the background of the RO (Suryavanshi)...How many allegations are there against her?" The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader also claimed that the Election Commission has not shared the CCTV footage of the counting centre. "We demand from the Election Commission that this entire matter be investigated..and Amol Kirtikar be declared the winner..this is our demand. We will file an appeal in the court in the next 2-3 days...we will challenge the victory of Ravindra Waikar," Parab said. The Returning Officer further stated that the incident at Mumbai North West Constituency Counting Centre is regarding unauthorisedly using mobile phone of an authorized person by a candidate's aide. Notably, Ravindra Waikar won the Mumbai North-West constituency by a small margin of 48 votes. The constituency witnessed a close fight between both Shiv Sena factions - Eknath Shinde's Ravindra Waikar and Uddhav Thackeray's Amol Kirtikar. (ANI)
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