Mumbai, July 29 (Reporter) The Bombay High Court on Monday directed Member of Parliament from the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, Ravindra Waikar, to appear before it on September 2 in connection with a petition seeking cancellation of his election due to alleged lapses during counting of votes. The election of Waikar, who belongs to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, has been challenged by defeated Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) candidate Amol Kirtikar, who lost to the former by a slender margin of 48 votes. A single-judge bench of Justice Sandeep V Marne issued a writ of summons to Waikar and other respondents to appear before the court on September 2 to answer the claim made by Kirtikar in his election petition. “Issue writ of summons to respondents returnable on September 2, 2024,” the bench said. Kirtikar had lost to Waikar, by 48 votes. While Waikar got 4,52,644 votes, Kirtikar garnered 4,52,596. In his petition, Kirtikar urged the high court to declare Waikar's election as "null and void". Kirtikar also urged the high court to declare him as the duly elected candidate from the constituency, as there were serious lapses on the part of the counting officials. “The Election Petitioner (Kirtikar) is aggrieved on account of the improper reception of void votes cast by 333 impersonators in place of genuine voters, along with breach of rules/orders, pertaining to the counting process, by election officials, which has materially affected the outcome of the election results,” the plea said. The returning officer showed "high-handed hastiness and palpable arbitrariness" at the time of the counting of votes, Kirtikar’s plea alleged. He also asked the court to summon the video recordings of the entire counting process while hearing his plea. This is the second petition against Waikar's election. Last month, a petition was filed against his election by Bharat Shah from the Hindu Samaj Party, also a candidate from the same constituency. His plea is yet to come up for hearing...////...