Special Correspondent
Mumbai : The Bombay High Court has taken cognizance of an election petition alleging large-scale voter list fraud in the Bhosari Assembly constituency, claiming that the election was not held in a fair and transparent manner as required by law. Justice R.I. Chagla has issued a notice to sitting MLA Mahesh Landge, asking him to respond to the allegations by April 15.
Ajit Damodar Gawhane, the candidate from the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction), who contested against BJP’s Mahesh Landge, has filed this petition with the legal assistance of advocates Asim Sarode, Shriya Awale, and Rajabhau Chaudhari.
The petition alleges that Mahesh Landge, with the help of administrative officers, orchestrated a systematic voter list scam. It claims that approximately 62,000 fake voters were added to the list, while nearly 15,000 genuine voters—who were likely to vote against him—were removed. These serious charges have been backed by preliminary evidence submitted along with the petition.
Advocate Asim Sarode, representing Gawhane, stated that there are documented cases where multiple individuals with identical names, addresses, and even mobile numbers were registered as separate voters. Complaints regarding these fake entries were reportedly submitted before finalization of the voter list, but were deliberately ignored by officials.
The petition also casts doubts on the role of key authorities, including the District Collector, District Election Officer, and the Chief Electoral Officer, describing their conduct as suspicious. It points to several electoral malpractices such as issuance of multiple voter ID cards to identical profiles and denial of transparency by not providing 17C forms and CCTV footage under RTI.
Furthermore, the petition accuses the Election Commission of not complying with the Supreme Court’s 2013 order to verify at least 5% of the EVM votes. It also criticizes the selective use of EVMs favoring the BJP-Mahayuti alliance.
Labeling the entire voter list scam and the lack of transparency in vote counting as a well-orchestrated conspiracy, the petition urges the court to declare Mahesh Landge’s election as null and void and instead declare the second-highest vote-getter, Ajit Gawhane, as the duly elected MLA of Bhosari.
