Gujarat High Court will held further hearing on a petition filed by BJP’s Kheda Lok Sabha seat candidate Devusinh Chauhan demanding a recounting for Kheda Lok Sabha seat on 8th June.

BJP’s Devusinh had lost an election to outgoing Union minister of state for petroleum Dinsha Patel by 846 votes.

Devusinh had requested recounting to district election officer and Kheda district’s collector Mohammed Shahid on the counting day itself. However, Collector Mohammed Shahid did not allow recounting on the grounds that there was no complaint filed by the BJP candidate till the counting got over. BJP workers had created a ruckus demanding recounting and alleging foul play.

On May 16, the results were kept on hold for a few hours after a technical snag developed in an EVM, which had 686 votes of a minority-dominated booth of Dholka. While Patel was leading with 305 votes by that time, after the machine was rectified Dinsha was declared elected with 2,84,004 votes in his favour against Chauhan’s 2,83,158 votes.

On Wednesday, the petition came up for hearing in the court of justice ZK Saiyed. Advocate Chitrajeet Upadhyaya, who appeared on behalf of Chauhan, argued that he was not served election results. Senior counsel Percy Kavina, who appeared for the Election Commission of India, pointed out certain fundamental loopholes in the petition.

While fixing June 8 as the further date for hearing, HC has asked that all candidates contesting from Kheda seat should be made a party in the case. Apart from Dinsha and Devusinh, seven other candidates, including one each of Bahujan Samaj Party, Mahagujarat Janta Party and five other independents, were in fray from Kheda.