The opposition BJP won all three seats it had contested.
Bombay:
India’s Election Commission on Wednesday filed a preliminary objection to a petition filed by Maharashtra Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande against the ECI’s decision to invalidate his vote cast in last week’s Rajya Sabha elections.
The ECI’s decision came after the BJP claimed it had violated the voting process.
Mr Kande said in his petition, filed by lawyer Ajinkya Udane, that the decision of the ECI to cast its vote has caused serious damage to his dignity and reputation and asked the Supreme Court to quash it and set it aside.
On Wednesday, lawyer Abhinav Chandrachud, who appeared before the ECI, the Election Commissioner and the Chief Election Commissioner, told a division bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and Dhiraj Singh Thakur that he had a preliminary objection to the plea.
“The petitioner should have submitted an election request as he has challenged a decision of the Election Commission,” said Mr Chandrachud.
The bank then said it would hear arguments about the preliminary objections on June 24.
Mr Kande claimed in his plea that on June 10, when the Rajya Sabha elections were held for six seats in Maharashtra, he went to the polling hall (at Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai), exercised his right to vote, had the necessary approval given on the ballot paper and according to the rules, came out and showed the ballot to Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu, who had issued a whip for the polls.
“It is alleged by MLA Yogesh Sagar that the petitioner showed his ballot to the whip of another political party. This is not true and the petitioner has only shown his ballot to Sunil Prabhu and not to any other political party,” the spokesman said. petition said.
Mr Sagar should have filed this objection at the time and not after Mr Kande left the polling room, the petition said.
She further alleged that the responsible polling officer of the polling station ruled that Mr Sagar’s claims were not factually correct and that Mr Kande’s vote was valid.
Later in the evening, however, several BJP leaders met with the ECI with the same complaint. The petitioner (Mr Kande) was not notified and without requesting Mr Kande’s reply, the ECI deemed it appropriate to interfere with the election officer’s decision and declared Mr Kande’s vote invalid, the petition said .
In Maharashtra’s hotly contested six-seat polls last Friday, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar lost to BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik – the third nominee. The ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and its allies NCP and Congress won one seat each.
The opposition BJP won all three seats it had contested.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
