Aaditya Thackeray calls for drive against 'vote theft' to win BMC polls

Mumbai, Oct 27 (IANS) Shiv Sena-UBT leader and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Monday flagged the issue of "vote theft" and appealed to party workers to adopt a "my responsibility is my list (voter list)" approach ahead of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.

At the party’s Nirdhar rally, Aaditya Thackeray called upon workers to check duplicate names, dead voters, incorrect photos and addresses, and multiple entries from the same location. He claimed that the voters’ list is a fraud and urged party cadres to expose the “scam”, prevent bogus voting and ensure a determined fight to win the BMC elections.

He appealed to Vibhag Pramukhs, Shakha Pramukhs and Up-Shakha Pramukhs to contribute to the party’s victory. He also announced that the opposition and like-minded parties will hold a march in Mumbai on November 1 to highlight “vote theft” and anomalies in electoral rolls. “We will have to stop the scams in the voters’ list, otherwise the results will be changed due to bogus voting,” he warned.

Aaditya made a presentation on alleged voter irregularities, titled ‘Bogus Sarkar’s Bogus Voters’, similar to Rahul Gandhi’s earlier campaign, and claimed bogus voting had occurred even in his Worli constituency. He said he personally scrutinised the Mumbai and Worli voter lists and found “huge discrepancies”, vowing to stop vote theft before the BMC elections.

“The number of voters in Worli assembly constituency has increased from 2,52,970 in the Lok Sabha to 2,63,352 in the Assembly, with 16,043 new voters added and 5,661 removed,” he said, making a “sensational claim” of 19,333 voters with anomalies.

“Vote theft everywhere means election theft. It was expected that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government would win in the Assembly elections, but at that time this scam could not be caught. The election will not be fought only through campaigning, but with the voters’ list in hand. Everyone should carefully read the list,” he said.

Stating that there were issues with 22,000–23,000 names in Worli alone, he warned that the number would be in lakhs across Mumbai. He further alleged that since the Election Commission is “working for the BJP”, party workers must remain alert. Aaditya added, “502 voters were found whose name and father’s name were the same. There were 720 voters whose father is Patel with a voter named Mhatre. There were 643 registered as male for women. There were 28 voters without EPIC numbers and 133 voters with the same EPIC.”

He also cited cases where the same person had multiple EPIC numbers. He claimed that one Narhari Kulkarni was “declared dead in the Lok Sabha, but returned in the Assembly and voted”. “There are 113 voters over 100 years old in Worli. If you want to live longer, come to Worli!” he quipped.

He alleged that even deceased voters remained on the rolls and “must have voted”. After the Assembly polls, 1,200 voters were deleted, but he suspects they had already cast votes. Aaditya said many photos were missing, voter cards appeared in three languages and numerous discrepancies were captured on video.

“There were more than 4,000 voters without an address. There were 214 houses showing 38 voters in a small house. Further, 48 voters were registered in the Ghasitram Halwai shop,” he alleged.

--IANS

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