Raut Proposes All-Party Delegation To Meet ECI, Invites Fadnavis To Join
Mr. Raut has also invited Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to join the delegation, which is scheduled to meet Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam on October 14 at 12:30 PM.
Mumbai: With Maharashtra gearing up for the long-pending local body elections, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday proposed the formation of an all-party delegation to meet with senior officials of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to raise concerns about electoral transparency and fairness.
Mr. Raut has also invited Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to join the delegation, which is scheduled to meet Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam on October 14 at 12:30 PM. The move is seen as a significant political step ahead of what are being dubbed as “mini assembly elections,” given the scale and stakes involved.
The delegation is expected to include senior opposition leaders such as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Congress President Harshwardhan Sapkal, and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray.
In a post on social media platform X, Mr. Raut urged the Chief Minister to join the delegation, writing in Marathi, “The Chief Minister of the state, Devendra Fadnavis, is requested to participate in this all-party delegation. This is not politics but an effort to save democracy. After the meeting, all leaders will address a press conference at Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan. Jai Maharashtra!”
The meeting assumes political significance amid the Opposition’s, especially Congress party’s allegations of vote rigging during Maharashtra Assembly elections in November 2024.
Out of the 780 local bodies in rural and urban areas spread across the state’s 36 districts, as many as 687 are currently under the control of administrators, with elections long overdue. These polls will mark the first major face-off between the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) after the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance’s sweeping win in last year’s assembly elections. With contests spanning urban and rural local bodies across the state, they are being perceived as mini assembly elections.
Speaking with the reporters, Mr. Raut said that the meeting with the ECI is just a formality as the poll body is going to do nothing. “We will raise our concerns before the ECI. The all-party delegation will meet Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Chockalingam at 12.30 pm on October 14,” he said.
Mr. Raut further said that he has also invited other two parties of the ruling Mahayuti alliance — Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP.