Mumbai: The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Monday questioned the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in light of Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of vote theft and poll rigging, calling for a thorough investigation.
In an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction alleged that the ECI was working under the BJP’s influence. “BJP has come to power at the Centre and in Maharashtra through a poll scam and cheating of voters,” it claimed.
The editorial criticized the poll body’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar ahead of the state Assembly polls, saying, “Rahul Gandhi has exposed the lies of the ECI by putting forward all the facts of vote theft through a press conference. ECI should hold a thorough probe into the charges made by Rahul Gandhi instead of asking him to file an affidavit.”
It further alleged that the ECI had turned into a “BJP-funded spectacle” and accused the current Chief Election Commissioner of sycophancy towards Union Home Minister Amit Shah, with whom he had worked in the Home and Cooperation ministries.
According to the editorial, Rahul Gandhi had provided evidence showing an “alliance” between the BJP and the ECI to steal votes, detailing how the alleged manipulation was planned and executed. It claimed that “massive vote rigging” in at least 50 Lok Sabha seats helped the BJP return to power, with 25 constituencies seeing a reversal of results after counting was halted and manipulated.
The piece accused the ECI of destroying electronic data related to BJP victories in more than 25 seats with margins of under 35,000 votes, and of turning a blind eye to alleged misuse of ‘Form 6’ to add bogus voters. It alleged instances of duplicate voters casting ballots in multiple states and pointed to similar irregularities in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Supporting Gandhi, the Sena (UBT) said the Leader of Opposition’s statements should be trusted and investigated impartially, rather than dismissed. “He is the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and has taken oath in Parliament as per the Constitution. So the ECI should trust his words. On the contrary, ECI is insisting that Rahul Gandhi give an affidavit on oath, and not conduct an impartial investigation into his allegations. The poll body is thereby justifying the vote theft by the BJP. The constitutional institutions of the country are being destroyed,” it said, adding that constitutional institutions were being eroded.
The editorial claimed that many voters believed the BJP’s victories in the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly polls were not genuine, citing the absence of public celebrations as proof of disillusionment.