Mumbai, 4 October

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of acting as a “weapon” for the ruling BJP, even as MNS leader Raj Thackeray demanded cancellation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Maharashtra’s electoral rolls.

Thousands of people joined the protest march led by the Thackeray cousins in Mumbai against the CEC, which culminated in a rally. Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Vijay Wadettiwar as well as Jayant Patil, Shashikant Shinde, Jitendra Awhad and Anil Deshmukh of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) participated in the rally.

The march began from the Metro Cinema and traversed the short distance to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in south Mumbai.

Backing the protesters, Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, who held a 'Jail Bharo Andolan' against the CEC in Mumbai on Friday, said the city is out on the streets again for free and fair elections. He called for all Indians to come together, saying "it's now or never".

Participants of the agitation, dubbed the Virat Garjana Morcha (Grand Roar March), demanded the removal/resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR process. Party flags were not allowed in the march, and the participants were asked to carry only the national tricolour.

Raj Thackeray demanded that future polls in the country be conducted through paper ballot. He also demanded cancellation of the SIR exercise in Maharashtra.

If the SIR was conducted to weed out Bangladeshis from the voters' list, then how many Bangladeshis residing illegally in the country did the government find? Uddhav Thackeray asked.

"Gyanesh Kumar is a weapon of the BJP," the former Maharashtra CM alleged.

He also warned of prosecution of BJP officials on the lines of the Nuremberg Trials. "BJP and these officials should realise that a similar thing will happen in the country," he claimed.

Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals held by the Allied Powers after World War II, which held accountable top-ranking officials of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler.

Uddhav said the Opposition parties' fight is not about any one party or leader, religion or caste, but for the country's freedom. "The BJP should realise that people are quiet today. If they become agitated, they will burn down its throne," he claimed.

He accused the BJP of not only "stealing" votes and lawmakers, but also the donation from Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Targeting the Election Commission, the Sena (UBT) chief claimed 2 crore voters have been deleted in the Maharashtra SIR, as well as 30 lakh in West Bengal and 70 lakh in Tamil Nadu in a similar exercise in those states.

He also criticised the Supreme Court for not holding an urgent hearing in a West Bengal SIR matter earlier this week on the eve of bypolls in the state. The court will hear the matter on October 5, a day before bypolls to two assembly seats in the state.

"This shows how they are controlling all institutions," Uddhav claimed.

Raj Thackeray said he had been telling political leaders since 2017-18 that there were "irregularities" in the poll body.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief said he had met then Congress president Sonia Gandhi and then West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over EVMs and the voters’ list, and urged them to boycott polls until the issues were clarified.

After the Opposition's good show in Maharashtra in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, their votes cannot dip, and the BJP's votes cannot increase in the state assembly polls held just after six months, he claimed.

"I only want to tell the ruling party that we don't have anger about you coming to power, but the anger is about how you got the power and the way you are using it," Raj Thackeray said.

The BJP's attitude is that it can do anything as per its whim and fancy, because the party knows nothing can happen to it as it has the support of the EC, he charged.

Any ruling party which takes policy decisions has fear of backlash from people and losing power. However, there is no such fear in governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra, MNS chief added.

Backing the agitation, Dipke in a post on X said, "Solidarity with all the protestors. All Indians need to come together. It's now or never! PS: Don't ask how protests are being allowed in Mumbai. There's big cultural difference between MH Police & Delhi Police."

Thorat said Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has been speaking about "vote theft" for a long time and had also presented evidence.

"And now that evidence has come out through the Election Commission. The BJP can do anything for power," he said while criticising the manner in which the apex poll panel's members were being appointed.

The process of appointing the Election Commission was changed, and a Supreme Court judge was removed from it (selection panel), and this is where it started, Thorat claimed.

"All those who gain power do so through the theft of votes. They use various methods. Gyanesh Kumar is a symbol of this corrupt administration," he alleged.

The period since 2014 (of NDA in power) will be remembered as a "dark period" in the country's history, he claimed.

"We now have to correct this. We have to re-establish democracy and the Constitution and protect their dignity. All of you will have to rise. You will have to struggle, and once again, all of us will have to work to save democracy," Thorat said.