Amid controversy over the alleged manipulation in the counting of votes, the Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Monday announced that his party would challenge the Lok Sabha poll result in the Mumbai North-West constituency on the ground that the official machinery was “misused” to favour the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena candidate.

A day after Mumbai Suburban district’s Additional Collector and Returning Officer of Mumbai North-West constituency Vandana Suryavanshi categorically stated that there was no attempt to hack the EVM machines inside the counting centre, Aaditya dubbed the result declared in the Mumbai North-West constituency was a “fraud”.  “We will challenge the result in the Mumbai North-West seat,” he said.

In the Mumbai North-West constituency, Shinde-led Shiv Sena candidate Ravindra Waikar Trounced Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar by a margin of mere 48 votes in the polls. While Waikar polled 4,52,644 votes, Kirtikar secured  4,52,596 votes.

Addressing a news conference along Sena leader and former state minister Anil Parab, Aaditya alleged that his party candidate’s victory was snatched from through the "misuse" of the official machinery.

"There is an ongoing debate on the election process and EVMs. I have already said the Election Commission is an 'entirely compromised' commission. If the election process was "free and fair", the BJP would have won only 40 Lok Sabha seats and not 240,” Aaditya said.

Alluding to the LS poll result in the Mumbai North-west constituency, Parab said that the Election Commission of India should take suo motu action based on the information available and declare Kirtikar as winner.

“The results declared in Mumbai north-west constituency were suspicious. We will take a legal recourse against the alleged misuse of official machinery under the Representation of the People Act in a day or two,” Parab said.