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Mumbai, Nov 3 (IANS) Maharashtra Cultural Affairs Minister and former Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar on Monday accused Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of deliberately ignoring Muslim duplicate voters and focusing only on Hindi and Marathi speakers.
“MNS chief Raj Thackeray does not see Muslims with duplicate names in many constituencies. It seems Raj Thackeray has also been influenced by the so-called ‘vote jihad’ as he is now only talking about Hindi and Marathi speaking duplicate voters in the lists,” Shelar said at a press conference.
The minister said the BJP never discriminates among voters, but claimed that the MVA and its new ally Raj Thackeray are “dividing voters on caste, religious and community lines”.
“We will expose them,” he said.
Shelar further alleged that during the Lok Sabha elections, the MVA had carried out “planned vote jihad” and deliberately excluded the names of “many honest voters”.
To prove his allegation, he presented a list of eight categories of alleged Muslim double voters in several constituencies, which he claimed had a correlation with the victory margin of MVA MLAs.
Taking a dig at Raj Thackeray and the MVA, Shelar said, “Should we assume that the victory of many MLAs was because of those Muslim duplicate voters?”
He reiterated that the BJP’s stance is not “justice for all, appeasement for none”.
Shelar accused the opposition of misleading the public with “complete lies” during the MVA’s Satyacha March (Truth March) held in Mumbai on Saturday.
“The opposition got a big shock after the assembly elections. From Pappu in Delhi to Pappu on the road, everyone started fabricating a fake story of vote theft. Now, on the eve of the upcoming local body elections, they are again trying to mislead people with wrong information,” Shelar alleged.
He said, “By spreading the false story of vote theft, the real scam committed by the MVA is being hidden. We are not speaking on behalf of the Election Commission, but are only presenting the facts visible to the public.”
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray strongly rejected BJP’s allegations of “vote jihad”, saying his party, along with other MVA constituents and the MNS, has consistently demanded cleansing of voter lists before holding local and civic body elections.
At a press conference held two days after the opposition’s Satyacha March in Mumbai, Thackeray said, “The Election Commission should correct all the errors, including duplicate and fake entries, in the voter lists. Neither Shiv Sena (UBT) nor any other party has mentioned any fake voters on the basis of religion. We are not opposing the elections, but we insist that the elections should be held only after the voter lists are cleaned.”
He also alleged that the Election Commission and the Center are “afraid of Gen Z voters”, claiming that youth who turn 18 after July 1 will be deprived of the right to vote in the upcoming local and civic body elections.
“The youth who will turn 18 after July 1 should be allowed to vote in the upcoming elections,” Thackeray said.
–IANS
SJ/PGH