Senior BJP leader Ashish Shelar alleged that in several constituencies, MVA candidates won by very narrow margins, and those areas reportedly had a large number of duplicate Muslim voter names.
“MVA and MNS leaders are accusing the ruling MLAs of ‘vote theft.’ Should the BJP then ask whether MVA candidates won because of the same ‘vote theft’? Should Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray then resign?” Shelar questioned.
The BJP has launched a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list a process that the Congress had earlier opposed in Bihar. Shelar urged Uddhav and Raj Thackeray to support the SIR initiative to ensure a clean and accurate voter list.
‘MVA and MNS targeting Hindu voters’
Shelar further claimed that while opposition leaders are pointing to duplicate voter names in constituencies held by ruling MLAs, they are deliberately ignoring the same issue in seats held by MVA leaders such as Rohit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Uttam Jankar, Nana Patole, Varun Sardesai, and Jitendra Awhad.
“In these constituencies, the victory margins are smaller than the number of duplicate voters, yet the opposition has avoided mentioning them. This is intentional. Hindu voters are being targeted while Muslim voters are left out. We do not want discrimination, all fake names should be removed but the opposition only wants scrutiny where Marathi and Hindu voters are dominant. This is clearly ‘Vote Jihad,’” Shelar alleged.
BJP hits back at Thackeray brothers
Last week, the opposition announced plans to move court over alleged irregularities in Maharashtra’s voter lists. Around the same time, Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray urged their party workers to “deal with such voters in their own style.”
Responding to this, Shelar said, “Initially, the Thackerays opposed migrants from Bihar. Then they targeted Jains, Gujaratis, and Marwaris. And now, they are speaking against Marathi people themselves. If you want to oppose the BJP, do it — but don’t get carried away by the Congress’s minority appeasement politics,” he warned.
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