Uddhav, Raj Thackeray unite in Mumbai To Take On CEC
“Across the country, the names of 13 crore people have been deleted from the electoral rolls": Reports
MUMBAI: The joint protest march led by Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar received a massive response in Mumbai on Sunday. Alleging irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Thackeray cousins demanded the resignation of Kumar and also sought the cancellation of the SIR in Maharashtra.
Addressing the rally, Uddhav called Gyanesh Kumar as the ‘weapon of the BJP’ and claimed that two crore voters had been deleted from Maharashtra’s electoral rolls during the SIR. “Across the country, the names of 13 crore people have been deleted from the electoral rolls. Voters have been excluded in Bengal and Tamil Nadu as well,” he said.
“They (the government) are taking away the right to vote. They may have taken control of these institutions and the administration, but these roads belong to the people. In future, it would become difficult for them to move about on these very roads,” he warned.
Uddhav Thackeray also invoked German dictator Adolf Hitler while attacking what he alleged was arbitrary rule. “We are standing here today to overthrow the dictator. Hitler was also a dictator like this, but ultimately, he had to shoot himself. A similar situation could arise in this country as well. Those acting arbitrarily should keep this in mind,” he said.
Uddhav questioned the Centre’s stated objective behind the SIR exercise. “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?” he asked.
Raj demanded the cancellation of the SIR exercise in Maharashtra and called for elections to be conducted using ballot papers instead of voting machines. He questioned the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha polls held six months later, claiming that the Opposition’s vote share could not have declined while the BJP’s increased significantly in such a short period.
“Our demand is that the entire SIR conducted in Maharashtra should be cancelled. The law says that SIR is conducted if an emergency situation arises. Forty to sixty lakh voters were added during the Assembly elections, and power was captured through this. And now, through SIR, two crore people are being removed. Who are these two crore voters?” Raj Thackeray said.
“I appeal to all political parties to go to Delhi and demand that the SIR be cancelled. Voting machines should be discontinued, and elections should be conducted using ballot papers,” he added.
Thousands of people joined a protest march, which was dubbed the ‘Virat Garjana Morcha.’ The rally began at Metro Cinema and culminated in a rally outside the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in south Mumbai. Party flags were not allowed in the march. Participants and supporters were asked to carry only the national tricolour.
Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Vijay Wadettiwar, along with NCP (SP) leaders Jayant Patil, Shashikant Shinde, Jitendra Awhad and Anil Deshmukh, also participated in the rally.
The protest was also backed by Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, who had held a ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ against the CEC in Mumbai on Friday. He called for people across the country to unite, saying, “It’s now or never.”
