Poll rival challenges Karjat MLA’s election
MUMBAI: Sudhakar Ghare has petitioned the Bombay high court, alleging bribery and malpractices by Shiv Sena's Mahendra Thorve in the 2024 assembly polls.
MUMBAI: Sudhakar Ghare, who contested the assembly polls in November 2024 from Karjat as an independent candidate, has approached the Bombay high court alleging Shiv Sena’s Mahendra Thorve, the current MLA, won the election by bribing voters and indulging in other malpractices.

Thorve’s election should be declared as void and set aside and Ghare should be declared as the winner, the latter has said in the petition. A single judge bench of justice Sandeep Marne has posted the plea for hearing on February 18.
The petition, filed through advocate Pooja Thorat, claimed that Thorve indulged in a number of malpractices to secure his victory in the election. He did not mention details of criminal proceedings pending against him in the election form and distributed sarees to female voters in the constituency which was corroborated by two women and videos of the event, the petition noted.
Thorve distributed pamphlets promoting candidates with names similar to the petitioner and at least 4,000 such pamphlets were found, after which a complaint was raised with the Neral police station, the petition said. Ghare’s election agent had in October 2024 also intimated the Raigad collector, superintendent of police, and Karjat police inspector about Thorve contravening the code of conduct, it added.
The petition further alleged that votes from one electronic voting machine used in the constituency could not be counted due to a technical error, which ensured Thorve’s victory. Out of the 240,070 votes cast in the constituency, Ghare received around 89,000 votes while Thorve received around 94,000 votes.
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