CUTTACK: AN election petition filed in Orissa High Court has sought direction for fresh election to Kantabanji Assembly segment alleging discrepancy in the total number of votes polled and that found in the EVM during counting.
The petition filed by defeated BJD candidate Ajay Kumar Das on July 1 came up for hearing on Wednesday. The Single Judge Bench of Justice Biswajit Mohanty posted the matter to October 18 for hearing along with responses from Election Commission of India, State Election Commission and Santosh Singh Saluja of Congress, who won from the seat. Justice Mohanty accordingly issued notices returnable by then.
Saluja had defeated his nearest rival Laxman Bag of BJP while Ajay Kumar Das of BJD ended up third. According to the result published on April 19, a total of 1,82,411 votes were polled, but a total of 1,91,077 votes were found in EVMs when those were opened on May 23 for counting. The petitioner prayed for declaration of the election null and void and conducting fresh election. Bag also filed an election petition citing same grounds for invalidating the election results. But, the court has not taken up his petition so far.
Besides, two PILs have been also filed seeking CBI probe on the discrepancy in Kantabanji Assembly constituency. In May, two voters Rupesh Kumar Behera and Bhubanananda Mahanta had filed one petition. The other was filed in June by a Bhubaneswar-based businessman Subrat Kumar Chatoi.