Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday wondered if doubts were being raised over EVM’s sanctity in connection with the Mumbai North West constituency only because the winner belongs to his party Shiv Sena.

He was responding to a question tied to a report about a relative of Sena’s Ravindra Waikar, who defeated Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Amol Kirtikar by just 48 seats from the seat, using a mobile phone linked to an EVM during vote counting on June 4.

“Why are questions being raised about the outcome of only Mumbai North West constituency and not any other result in the state? Is it because my candidate, Waikar, won and theirs lost,” Shinde asked.

As per the rules, the use of mobile phones is restricted at counting centres.

Shinde said people’s mandate favoured Waikar.

The CM also sought to compare his party's performance with that of rival Sena (UBT). He said his party won seven of the 15 seats it contested with a “strike rate of 48 per cent”. Sena (UBT), which won nine of the 21 seats it contested, had a “strike rate of 42 per cent”, he said.

Shinde claimed that his party bagged two lakh more votes than the candidates of the opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), of which Sena (UBT) is a part, in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Vandana Suryavanshi, returning officer of Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, refuted the report saying EVM was a standalone system with "robust administrative safeguards" to protect it from any kind of manipulation and that there was no need for an OTP to unlock it.

“It is not programmable and has no wireless communication capabilities. It is a complete lie being spread by a newspaper. We have issued notice to mid-day newspaper under sections 499, 505 of the Indian Penal Code for defamation and spreading false news,” Suryavanshi said in a press conference on Sunday.

As per Vanrai police in the city, Waikar’s brother-in-law Mangesh Pandilkar was booked on Wednesday under IPC section 188 (disobeying official order) for allegedly using a mobile phone at a counting centre in Goregaon on June 4, when results of the general elections were announced.

Speaking at the press conference, Suryavanshi said the personal mobile phone of one Dinesh Gurav, the data entry operator of Jogeshwari assembly constituency, was found in the hands of an unauthorised person and action is being taken in this regard.

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