Raj Thackeray
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: MNS founder-President Raj Thackeray on Sunday alleged that 96 lakh bogus voters have been added to Maharashtra’s voters list by the Election Commission. He also revived his criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Raj asked the Election Commission to “purify” the electoral rolls and not to proceed with the local body polls in Maharashtra till the "purification" was done to the "satisfaction" of all the political parties.
Addressing a meeting of booth-level agents of the MNS at the Nesco Complex at Goregaon in Mumbai, Raj said: “If elections are held by rigging the voters' list, then it is the biggest insult to electors. You vote or do not vote, the match is fixed. The result is decided…when we are addressing the issue to the Election Commission, why the ruling parties are responding? It pinches them as they know what exactly happened.”
"An attempt is being made to finish regional parties. I have learnt that 96 lakh fake voters have been enrolled in the voters' list in Maharashtra for the upcoming polls. They had also done this ahead of the 2024 Vidhan Sabha polls,” said Raj.
According to him, 8 to 10 lakh fake voters have been added in Mumbai and 8 to 8.5 lakh in Thane, Pune and Nashik.
“The arithmetic itself is compromised and now they are making criticism saying that so and so has not won a single seat. Everyone knows how they won the elections,” he said lashing out at the BJP and its allies Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
About the Assembly polls, he said: “Even when 232 MLAs (of the Maha Yuti) were elected, Maharashtra was silent. Voters were shocked, and even the elected representatives were stunned. Everyone now knows how elections are being conducted in this country.”
Raj targets Modi again
During the rally, Raj also played a video clip of Modi from earlier years, in which Modi had accused the Election Commission of bias. “What I am saying is what Modi himself once said. We are telling the Election Commission today that it should not act as a servant of those in power,” said Raj.
“When the BJP was in the Opposition, it used to make the same charges against the Election Commission,” he added slamming the BJP leadership.
Raj, the nephew of late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and cousin of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, said: “The confusion in the voter list is not something new…it’s been going on for years. I raised this issue back in 2016-17 regarding electronic voting machines and voter lists.”