Mumbai, October 19 (IANS). Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) founder and president Raj Thackeray on Sunday made serious allegations against the Election Commission, saying that names of about 96 lakh fake voters have been included in the voter list of Maharashtra.
During the rally, he also reiterated his disagreement towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
His remarks were targeted at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partners, including the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Raj Thackeray called on the Election Commission to purge the voter lists and postpone the upcoming local body elections in the state until the reform is approved by all concerned political parties.
Addressing booth-level workers of MNS in Goregaon, Mumbai, he described rigged elections as the biggest insult to the voters.
The MNS chief said that holding elections with tampered voter lists predetermines the results regardless of public participation, terming it as a fixed political contest.
He asked why the ruling parties were interfering when the matter was related to the Election Commission, suggesting that this mattered to them because they were aware of the underlying manipulation.
Raj Thackeray argued that efforts were being made to marginalize regional political organizations. They revealed that they have detected 96 lakh fake entries being added to the voter list ahead of the upcoming local body elections, a tactic allegedly adopted even ahead of the 2024 assembly elections.
He said that eight to ten lakh fake voters have been included in Mumbai, while in Thane, Pune and Nashik the number is almost the same, between 8 to 8.5 lakh.
He said the electoral mathematics was fundamentally wrong, and rejected criticism that some parties had failed to gain seats, as this was widely understood to be how these victories were achieved.
Reflecting on the recent assembly elections, Raj Thackeray said that the election of 232 MLAs of the Mahayuti alliance has put Maharashtra in a state of disbelief, with both the voters and the winners being surprised.
He indicated that the methods followed in national elections are now transparent for all.
In the public meeting, Raj Thackeray showed an old video of Prime Minister Modi, which was during the tenure of the opposition party. In this video, Modi had accused the Election Commission of bias.
He said that BJP had made similar complaints even when it was not in power, thereby criticizing the current leadership of the party.
He stressed that discrepancies in voter lists are a long-standing issue, which he said was related to electronic voting machines and voter lists as far back as 2016-17.
These allegations are coming to light as preparations for local elections are being intensified, due to which apprehensions are increasing about the fairness of the electoral process in Maharashtra.
The Election Commission has not yet issued any statement on Raj Thackeray’s claims.
–IANS
DKP/