Four candidates, two of the Congress and one each of the BJD ad the BJP, who were defeated in the last Assembly elections, on Friday submitted petitions before the Odisha High Court challenging the poll results on the ground that there were manipulations and errors in both polling and counting.
Congress candidates of Bhawanipatna constituency Dushmant Nayak and Mohana constituency Dasarathi Gamang and BJD nominee of Chilika constituency Raghunath Sahu, in their petitions, prayed before the court to consider countermanding the elections in their respective constituencies for the alleged erroneous and dubious methods of counting of votes.
BJP candidate for the Raghnathpalli seat Jagabandhu Behera filed a petition on Saturday alleging large-scale irregularities and EVM tampering by his BJD rival and former Minister Subrat Tarai, who defeated him by a margin of over 14,000 votes.Dushmant Nayak has complained of foul play because the total number of votes counted is 7,000 more than the actual number of votes cast during polling in his constituency.
Dasarathi Gamang who lost by just 115 votes to his BJD rival has submitted documents showing that 700 votes which were not cast in the first place were counted.Raghunath Sahu who lost by a small margin of 500 votes has alleged that gross irregularities and errors in the counting process led to his defeat.