Mumbai: The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Friday accused the ruling coalition of misusing the government machinery to remove legitimate voters from the voter lists’ ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole while addressing an MVA press conference said, “The BJP is making changes to the voter list and removing names of the voters from the electoral rolls, despite the Election Commission’s assurance of free and fair elections in Maharashtra.”
Notably, Maha Vikas Aghadi is the alliance of Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT (Uddhav Thackeray’s faction) and NCP-SP (Sharad Pawar’s faction). They are up against ruling Mahayuti is the alliance of BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction).
He further alleged that CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis are involved in this, adding that BJP is scared of losing the elections.
“Form Number 7 is used to get names deleted from the existing electoral roll by raising objections. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis are involved behind all this,” said Patole. He added, “The BJP is aware they are losing the elections in Maharashtra and that is why they have resort to such tactics. The state will not forgive them for it.”
Shiv Sena UBT leader Anil Desai also spoke at the press conference here and urged voters to cast their franchise in an unbiased and fair mannerism.
He also mentioned that the MVA delegation was scheduled to meet the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra later in the day, demanding that the process of deletion of names through online applications be discontinued.
Meanwhile, a delegation of MVA met the Chief Electoral officer of the state S Chockalingam. Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut announced that he plans to discuss seat-sharing arrangements with Rahul Gandhi for the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance and noted that there were many seats on which decisions remained pending.
Sanjay Raut said that most of the leaders of Maharashtra are not capable of taking decisions and said, “Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena are in the alliance, Samajwadi Party, Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) are also there. They have to send the list to Delhi again and again. Now that time has passed. We want this decision to be taken as soon as possible.
“I have spoken to Mukul Wasnik in the morning. Today I will also speak to Rahul Gandhi and the pending decision regarding seat sharing will be expedited. Decisions have been taken on many seats. There are some seats on which a decision is not being taken,” he added.
Adding further, he said, “There is no major difference of opinion between NCP and Shiv Sena, not even in Congress but there are some seats on which all three parties claim. Nana Patole is our ally in Maharashtra, but there is a problem on some seats, it will be resolved.”
Raut emphasized that despite facing such challenges, they remain resolute in standing up to the BJP. The UBT Sena MP also took a dig at the election comssion claiming that they were biased.
“The Election Commission has given some important decisions, and we feel that those decisions are against the interests of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, and will help Shinde and the BJP. The Election Commission and the Supreme Court are not neutral. They are the B, C and D teams of the BJP,” he said.
Assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20, the Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday (October 15, 2024). With this, the political parties have begun gearing up for an election that will be unprecedented in many ways.
In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Congress and unified Shiv Sena had won 154 out of 288 seats as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition. However, this time around the Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Congress are in alliance to counter the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.
In the Lok Sabha election held this year, MVA won 30 of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. The ruling alliance won 17. One seat went to an Independent candidate. Elections in Maharashtra will be held on November 20, while the counting of votes will take place on November 23.