Raj Thackeray says vote theft taking place for the last ten years

Pune: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Saturday alleged that “vote theft” has been taking place for the last 10 years, claiming he has been raising the issue since 2016.

Addressing local party office-bearers in Pune ahead of the municipal elections, Thackeray said the Election Commission of India (ECI) should have launched an inquiry when both Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and BJP’s Anurag Thakur flagged irregularities in voter lists.

“When members from Opposition as well as the government are raising doubts, the ECI should have investigated them, but it prefers to suppress the matter. The ECI will not do it, as it fears that the vote theft of the last 10 years will be exposed. They have managed to form the government by stealing votes all these years,” Thackeray said, without naming any political party.

He alleged that MNS candidates lost elections not because of a lack of support, but because votes cast in their favor “never reached them”. He urged party workers to closely scrutinize voter lists to prevent manipulation.

Thackeray said that while the INDIA bloc is accusing the government of vote theft ahead of the Bihar assembly polls, he has been consistently raising the matter for the past nine years. “Vote theft has been taking place for the last ten years. I have been speaking about it since 2016. I also met Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and other opposition members. In 2017, I had suggested boycotting the polls,” he said.