SANJAY SADASHIVRAO MANDLIK Vs. ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Election Petition is filed under Sec. 65, 66 read with 100 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act ") in respect of the Loksabha Constituency of '47-Kolhapur ' in the General Elections held on 29/4/2019. The Petitioner contested that election on behalf of a political party, namely, "Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi ". The Respondent No.1 is the Election Commission of India, the Respondent No.2 is the Returning Officer appointed by the Respondent No.1 for that Constituency and the Respondent No.3 is the candidate of a political party 'Shivsena ' declared elected in that election.

(2.) The parties are referred to hereinafter by their original status in the election petition.

(3.) It is mentioned in the Petition that there were 18,74,345 registered voters. Out of them, 13,25,231 voters polled their votes. The Petitioner got 63,251 votes and the Respondent No.3 got 7,45,675 votes. The counted votes were 13,25,408. This figure does not match with the votes that were polled; and there were 177 additional votes which are more than the votes polled.