The BJP has accused the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) of selectively targeting Hindu names while objecting to duplicate voters, calling the move “vote jihad.”
Senior BJP leader Ashish Shelar claimed that in several constituencies, MVA candidates won by margins smaller than the number of duplicate Muslim voters. “MVA and MNS are trying to create a narrative that ruling party MLAs won due to Vote Chori. Now, should the BJP say that MVA candidates won because of Vote Chori? Will Thackeray cousins Uddhav and Raj ask for their resignation?” Shelar asked.
BJP dares Thackeray cousins to support SIR:
The BJP has initiated a move for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which Congress had opposed in Bihar. “Uddhav and Raj should support the SIR to ensure clean electoral rolls. They should come out and back the initiative sought by the BJP,” Shelar said.
MVA and MNS are selectively highlighting duplicate voters:
MVA and Raj’s MNS have cited instances of duplicate votes in constituencies of ruling party MLAs but have conveniently ignored assembly segments represented by MVA leaders like Rohit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Uttam Jankar, Nana Patole, Varun Sardesai, and Jitendra Awhad.
“All these constituencies have thousands of duplicate names. The winning margins of many candidates from these areas are smaller than the number of duplicates. Yet, these constituencies were not mentioned by Opposition leaders during their protest rally. This is deliberate. Hindu voters are being targeted while Muslim voters are spared. We do not want to discriminate between communities — all errors should be removed from the voters’ list. But the Opposition wants revision only for Marathi and Hindu voters. This is nothing but Vote Jihad,” Shelar alleged.
BJP hits back for targeting Marathi and Hindu voters:
Last week, Opposition parties in Maharashtra announced their plan to challenge the alleged voter list irregularities in court. While doing so, Thackeray cousins Raj and Uddhav urged their party workers to deal with such voters “in their style.”
Reacting to this, Shelar said, “Initially, the Thackerays were against people from Bihar. Later, they targeted Jains, Gujaratis, and Marwadis, and now they are against Marathis. I urge both Thackerays to reconsider their stance. Let them oppose the BJP, but while doing so, they should not be dragged by the Congress, which has always pursued minority appeasement politics,” Shelar added.
