Raut Alleges BJP Won Maharashtra Polls with Ex-CEC’s Help

Mumbai: Amidst ‘vote chori’ allegations leveled by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi against the Election Commission of India (ECI), Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday alleged that the 2024 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections were won by BJP and their allies with significant help from former Chief Election Commissioner Rajesh Kumar.

“The 2024 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections were won by BJP and their allies with significant help from this gentleman (Rajesh Kumar)! By giving the Shiv Sena party and symbol to the traitor faction, he encouraged defections!” Raut said in his post on X. He also shared Kumar’s image in his post.

Following the heavy defeat of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA) in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha polls, the Shiv Sena (UBT) raised doubts about the results claiming there were irregularities with the electronic voting machines (EVMs). In the Vidhan Sabha polls, the opposition MVA alliance won just 46 seats, whereas the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance won a whopping 235 seats.

Earlier, after the split in the Shiv Sena party, the Election Commission, in February 2023, had dealt a huge jolt to Uddhav Thackeray, by recognising the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and also ordered allocation of party’s ‘bow and arrow’ poll symbol to it.

Raut also sought to know the whereabouts of Rajiv Kumar. |Rahul Gandhi has now exposed the Election Commission’s biases! But where is this shadowy figure (Kumar) now? Can anyone tell? Former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar is already missing, so where exactly is this gentleman now?” he posted on X.

Earlier too, Raut had questioned former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s absence from the political landscape and wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah to know about his whereabouts.

Rahul Gandhi has levelled “vote chori” allegations against the Election Commission, alleging its involvement in malpractice to benefit the BJP in the 2024 elections.