Maharashtra elections: 7 Dahisar candidates demand recount

Soon after they found mismatch in the third machine after round 12, the candidates rushed to district magistrate court to lodge a complaint.

Maharashtra elections: 7 Dahisar candidates boycott counting, demand re-counting

In the letter submitted to the magistrate, candidates have appealed for a recounting to be conducted entirely based on VVPAT slips.

Alleging mismatch in control unit numbers of three EVM machines with corresponding numbers on election commission forms, all seven candidates contesting from Dahisar opposite sitting MLA Manisha Chaudhari boycotted the counting of votes. The candidates claimed the three machines as “bogus” and had demanded that the returning officer restart the counting process.

Congress candidate Arun Sawant, MNS candidate Rajesh Yerunkar, Nationalist Janshakti Party candidate Radheshyam Vishwakarma, Sambhaji Brigade Party’s Mahesh Jadhav, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Harsha Chowkekar, Hum Bhartiya Party’s Andrew Fernandes and independent candidate Dharmendra Pandey joined hands against the electoral counting.

The candidates first lodged complaint with the returning officer about two EVM machines, to which they were assured VVPAT counting of those machines by the end of counting process. Soon after they found mismatch in the third machine after round 12, the candidates rushed to district magistrate court to lodge a complaint.

In the letter submitted to the magistrate, candidates have appealed for a recounting to be conducted entirely based on VVPAT slips.

“After we took objection over the machines, they kept the machines aside and said they’ll count it last. We found issues with another machine, and asked them to re-conduct counting, which they refused. Returning officer and observer did not render any support, forcing us to knock the doors of the court,” said Sawant.

Until the EVM Machine tallies with 17 C form, they shouldn’t start counting but they did, said, Ashok Sutrale, North Mumbai Congress President. “We suspect this issue with fifty percent of the machines. Unless and until all this is verified, they shouldn’t have declared Manisha Chaudhari (BJP) as the winner. We want procedure to be conducted according to rules. It doesn’t matter who is elected,” he said.

Manisha Chaudhari won the assembly constituency for a second time with 87550 votes, followed by Sawant (23680 votes) and Yerunkar (17039 votes).

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Countering the claims, Chaudhari said that there was no issue, only the party workers misread certain alphabets. “After they walked out, ballot counting was undertaken for those machines and the count of votes was the same. Since my opponents didn’t find any real issues to talk about, they chose to create drama this way,” she said.

Returning officer for Dahisar constituency Harishchandra Patil told the Indian Express, “There was no mismatch in numbers. I accepted their complaint regarding two machines because if there’s a doubt in the candidate’s minds, it is my duty to clear them. However, re-conducting the whole counting process didn’t fall under my jurisdiction. We counted VVPAT slips of those machines and the numbers were the same.”