Mumbai, 04 October (H.S.): Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray on Sunday demanded that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra be scrapped and that all elections be conducted using ballot papers. He made the demand while addressing the Garjana Morcha organised in Mumbai by the MNS and the Shiv Sena (UBT).

The protest march, organised jointly by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the MNS, began at Metro Cinema and proceeded towards the Mumbai Municipal Corporation and Azad Maidan.

Raj Thackeray was addressing the Garjana Morcha organised by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the MNS at Azad Maidan. Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state president Shashikant Shinde and senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, among others, were present on the occasion.

MNS president Raj Thackeray said that the number of voters in Maharashtra had suddenly increased by 4 million to 6 million during the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections. He claimed that subsequently, in the name of the SIR exercise, the names of 20 million voters in Maharashtra and 130 million voters across the country had been deleted from the electoral rolls.

“Everything is being done arbitrarily,” he said. “There is no anger against those who are in power, but there is anger over the manner in which they have come to power.”

He therefore demanded that the SIR exercise be scrapped and elections be held using ballot papers. “Then everything will become clear, and the truth will come out,” Thackeray said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray said the SIR exercise being conducted in the country was completely illegal and should therefore be scrapped.

He said that when the SIR process was launched, it was stated that a large number of Bangladeshis had been included in the electoral rolls and that the exercise had been initiated to remove their names.

Uddhav Thackeray said the Central Government should clarify how many Bangladeshis had been identified through the SIR process and make the figure public.

Uddhav further alleged that the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar itself had been made improperly. He also criticised the legal protection granted to the Chief Election Commissioner, under which no case can be registered against him, describing the provision as wrong.

He said that a future government would initiate legal proceedings against Gyanesh Kumar and arrest him. However, he added that the present government should itself remove Gyanesh Kumar and discharge its responsibility.

Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar, NCP leader Jayant Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) leader Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut, Chandrakant Khaire and a large number of leaders from opposition parties were also present on the occasion.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar