Mumbai: Kin of newly-elected Shiv Sena MP booked for taking phone to election counting centre

The Mumbai Police have filed a case against the brother-in-law of newly-elected Mumbai North-West MP Ravindra Waikar for allegedly taking a mobile phone to a counting centre on the day of the Lok Sabha results, The Indian Express reported.

The police booked Mangesh Pandilkar under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code for disobeying official orders and also under the Representation of the People Act.

Waikar, a member of the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, won the Mumbai North-West seat by defeating Amol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) on June 4.

While initially it appeared that Kritikar had won, Waikar demanded the recounting of votes as the margin of victory was small. After recounting the votes polled with the Electronic Voting Machines, it was found that Kritikar had one more vote as compared to Waikar. However, re-checking the postal ballots placed Waikar ahead by 48 votes.

Waikar was eventually declared the winner, in what was the closest contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

However, after the results, Kirtikar as well as other defeated candidates alleged irregularities in the counting process. Kirtikar had alleged that while election officials had been announcing the number of votes polled after each round till the 19th cycle of counting, they stopped doing so afterwards.

“After the 26th round,...

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