A series of electoral malpractices alleged with the polls leading to notice for the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Election Commission of India to the Bombay High Court regarding the Mumbai contest, led an activist based from Mumbai in court by naming him Chetan Ahire stated that due to this anomaly it has gone questionable about one lakh votes been accepted after closure, hence no correct results in contention and declares poll invalid as unduly. The court will review Ahire's plea, which was considered after a four-week delay, in the coming days.
It has also indicated disparities between the number of votes cast and those counted in the machines. Some of the polling stations had more votes than those actually cast in a particular constituency while others less. The issuance of voter slips prior to the closing of the voting period has brought about more complaints. The Commission has not communicated the actual number of slips that were issued prior to the voting period closing.
Even accusations against election officials arose, on grounds of electoral officers failing to submit grievances they face to the Election Commission.
From this angle of inquiry and probe by the courts, serious flaws have cropped up in election procedure that some constituencies claim are flawed in result, forcing calls for that constituency's votes to be completely scrapped.
Opposition MVA- Congress/Shiv Sena -also separately challenged the votes, citing results manipulation. Among these is one by former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, comparing it to a similar situation in the Nanded Lok Sabha by-election, where the Congress emerged victorious. Next time around in the state assembly elections, Congress candidates lost this by-election. Such instances have heightened concerns within the party, including charge-sheets on alleged misuse of voting machines, vote-buying, and attempts at religious polarization. The political parties in the MVA have complained about these probable malpractices in the election.
The Election Commission has replied to these allegations by saying that it is seriously scrutinizing all the complaints and will take suitable action if any malpractices are found. The court will continue to go through these issues, and the decision regarding the validity of the election results will depend on the findings of further investigations.