Gujarat Assembly poll results challenged, Election Commission gets High Court notice

Those who have filed the petitions include former Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia from Porbandar, Sidharth Patel from Dabhoi (Vadodara), Mahendrasinh Baraiya from Prantij (Sabarkantha), Suleman M Pate from Bharuch, Rajendra B Parmar from Godhra and Nathabhai Patel from Vijapur, among others. Most of these candidates lost election by the margin of less than 3,000 votes.

On Wednesday, Justice J B Pardiwala recused himself from hearing the petition moved by Siddharth Patel. Apart from Congress leaders, there are leaders from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Indian National Dal also who have challenged the results.

Modhwadia told The Indian Express, “We have sought the counting of VVPAT on the basis of provisions. There are guidelines that along with Electronic Voting Machines, paper trail slips can also be counted. Since 2013, there are provisions that if a candidate demands, VVPAT should be counted. We had demanded but it was not done and therefore the petitions have been moved.” Modhwadia lost to BJP candidate by a margin of only 1855 votes.

“There are a number of discrepancies in the counting of votes. We have highlighted that in the petition. Basically, we are demanding the counting of VVPAT slips. Besides, there are several rules which have not been followed by the Election Commission,” said advocate Mehul H Rathod, who is appearing for Kalathiya.

The Assembly elections, held in December 2017, was the most tightly held contest. On at least 15 seats, the BJP beat the Congress by a margin of less than 3,000 votes. The seat with the narrowest margin was Godhra, where BJP candidate C K Raulji beat Rajendrasinh Balvantsinh of Congress by 258 votes.