The Karnataka High Court on Friday ordered notice to Congress member Tanveer Sait while hearing a petition filed by Abdul Majeed, a candidate of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), defeated in the recently held Assembly elections.
Justice A S Bopanna was hearing a petition filed by Majeed challenging election of Tanveer Sait from Narasimharaja constituency in Mysuru.
The petitioner has sought directions for counting of the entire Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) slips of Narasimharaja constituency in the 2018 Assembly elections. He has also sought for directions to declare the election of Sait from the said constituency void.
He has stated that Sait won by a margin of 18,127 votes and the petitioner stood third by securing 33,284 valid votes. He has added that on May 15, 2018, after the conclusion of counting, the returning officer concerned provided booth-wise details of the votes polled in each booth. He had stated that in one of the booths, the petitioner had received zero votes in his favour despite his party workers voting in his favour.
In wake of the irregularities in the counting and voting process, he gave representation to the district election officer requesting him to count the VVPT slips and tally the number with the final counting report, but his request was not considered. Following this the petitioner has moved the court seeking its intervention.
The court also issued notice to BJP’s Jagadish Shettar while hearing a petition filed by Mahesh Nalwad, a Congress candidate defeated in the election. He has contended that there were serious irregularities and mismatch in number of votes counted on the electronic voting machine and the votes recorded in the VVPT system.
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