Pune, Jul 21 (PTI) The Pune district election officer has ordered a recount of votes polled in the Hadapsar assembly constituency in the November 2024 Maharashtra elections, months after one of the losing candidates alleged irregularities in the counting process.
The recounting of votes will take place at Bhosari from July 25 to August 2, said the district election officer in a release on Monday without providing further details.
In November 2024, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate from Hadapsar in Pune district, Prashant Jagtap, had demanded a recount of votes in electronic voting machines and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) paper slips in the constituency after raising objections over the counting process and alleging manipulation of EVMs.
In Hadapsar, the main contest was between the rival factions of the NCP and Jagtap narrowly lost the election by 7,122 votes.
Chetan Tupe of the ruling NCP was declared elected from the seat with 1,34,810 votes, while rival NCP (SP)’s Jagtap received 1,27,688 votes.
Objections were raised by losing candidates in several assembly constituencies in the state over the counting process after the assembly elections and Hadapsar was one of them.
The Election Commission granted permission for a recount of 27 EVMs and VVPAT machines from the Hadapsar assembly constituency. However, the instructions given for this recount were to erase the actual voting data from the machines and conduct a mock poll for the recount.
Jagtap, along with others, challenged this decision of the EC in the Supreme Court.
The Pune district collector, who acted as election officer during the polls, has now ordered a recount of votes in Hadapsar.
Meanwhile, Jagtap expressed confidence the “vote tampering” that occurred in the Hadapsar constituency eight months ago will be exposed after recounting. PTI COR SPK RSY
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