Rajya Sabha Election: Shiv Sena files petition in court against Election Commission

- Allegations leveled by Yogesh Sagar in election official's decision are false and Kanda's vote is legal

Mumbai, Ta. 13 June 2022, Monday

Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande has challenged the decision of the Central Election Commission (ECI) in the Rajya Sabha elections held last week in the Bombay High Court. During the election, the Election Commission declared Kanda's vote invalid. The BJP had alleged that Kande had violated the election process after the commission had canceled his vote. Kande has now filed a petition in the High Court claiming that his vote was canceled even though he did nothing wrong.

In a petition filed in the High Court by advocate Ajinkya Udane, Suhas Kande said that the decision of the Election Commission to disqualify his vote had seriously damaged his dignity and reputation. He has applied to the court to quash the decision of the commission. Prosecutors referred to Kanda's application to Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur before a bench and requested for an immediate hearing.

The petition said that MLA Yogesh Sagar had falsely accused Kande of showing ballot papers to the whip of another political party. Shiv Sena MLA Kande has claimed in his petition that he had gone to the polling booths during the Rajya Sabha elections for 6 seats in Maharashtra on June 10 and exercised his right to vote. Then he came out as per the rules and showed the ballot paper to Shiv Sena leader and whip Sunil Prabhu.

The petition claims that the election official in charge of the polling station, while giving the verdict, said that the allegations leveled by Yogesh Sagar were false and that Kande's vote was legal. However, in the evening, several BJP leaders met Election Commission officials over the complaint. His vote was then declared invalid. Kande alleges in his petition that he was not given any notice before doing so and was asked for his answer. Without doing all this, the commission has intervened in the decision taken by the election official and canceled his vote.

In Maharashtra, the opposition BJP won 3 out of 6 Rajya Sabha seats, while the ruling Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress won one seat each.