After getting defeated in the NMC By-elections of ward 35 (A) by BJP’s Sandeep Gavai, his nearest opponent, Congress’ Pankaj Thorat has declared that he will be moving to court against the decision. Thorat has stated that his constitutional rights have been abused in the vote counting. He has claimed that he had appealed for a recounting as there was a margin of merely 463 votes between him and the winner but, the appeal was rejected by the election officer.

In a conversation with Nagpur Today, Thorat has claimed that the election officer has abused his constitutional right as an election candidate. As the difference of votes was very marginal, he had appealed election officer, Shirish Pandey for a recount. After which he was asked to submit a written application for the same which he did. In spite of that, Pandey rejected his appeal and suggested to complain the matter to State Election Commission. Agitated by the same, he has declared of moving to the court.

According to Thorat, “It is my right to appeal for a recount vested to be my Indian Constitution. But, it has been abused”. “As soon as the result was declared, the winner candidate was issued the winning certificate which should ideally be issued after two days”, he added.

Thorat has declared that he will be complaining against the whole episode to Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Friday.