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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 8:56:24 pm

Sack, jail Kumar: Uddhav

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray today demanded the immediate removal and arrest of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and fresh elections in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in the wake of differences emerging in the Election Commission of India’s top brass. Referring to reports in a media report that two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had reportedly raised objections on multiple occasions over certain decisions concerning...

Sack, jail Kumar: Uddhav

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray today demanded the immediate removal and arrest of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and fresh elections in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in the wake of differences emerging in the Election Commission of India’s top brass. Referring to reports in a media report that two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had reportedly raised objections on multiple occasions over certain decisions concerning electoral rolls and the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Thackeray accused the ECI of becoming ‘a part of a wider political operation’ intended to weaken democratic institutions. “There’s a ‘gang’ of people within the election system that is conniving to split political parties, grab their names and poll symbols, and are ‘murdering democracy’. The horrific, ugly and grotesque face of Gyanesh Kumar has been exposed. The Supreme Court must take suo motu cognizance of the entire controversy,” demanded Thackeray. Pointing to the ECI claims that it follows the directives of the Ministry of Home Affairs, he said “this raises questions whether the Home Minister is the ‘mastermind’, which needs to be clarified”. “If so, then he too must face the appropriate punishment,” said Thackeray, hinting at Amit Shah. Dwelling on the expose on ECI, he slammed the poll panel for “operating in an arbitrary fashion with Gyanesh Kumar, who is driven by a lust for power”, and reiterated that the CEC must be removed and jailed forthwith. To a query on following the rules, Thackeray shot back: “Did he follow the rules? Then why talk of rules for him sack and jail him. We salute the two ECs (Sandhu and Joshi) for bringing this out and opening the eyes of the country.” Attempting to douse the flames engulfing its credibility, the ECI said that there may be differences but these were thoroughly discussed and all the final decisions were taken unanimously by all the three top functionaries with their signatures. Thackery said around 45 lakh voters were added to the electoral rolls between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections (both 2024), and objections were subsequently raised on more than 40 lakh of those voter names. NCP (SP) seeks all-party meet The Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) on Wednesday called for an immediate all-party meeting to discuss reports of differences emerging within the Election Commission, saying the issue concerns the constitutional rights of every citizen and should not be treated as a political matter. She said the allegations should be discussed openly to establish whether there was any substance in them. Asked if Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar should “step aside”, Sule said there should be an open discussion on whether the allegations are true. “If the system is going to collapse, then who we should trust in this country,” the Lok Sabha member from Baramati constituency in western Maharashtra said.

Clever seat selection helped BJP to secure historic win

Writer: Ruddhi Phadke
Ruddhi Phadke
Nov 29, 2024
2 min read

The party won 65 seats against Congress, 37 against NCP (SP) and 29 against Shiv Sena (UBT)

Clever seat selection

Mumbai: The BJP’s strategic seat sharing with the allies has proved beneficial for the party. An analysis of the Assembly election results show that the BJP has scored over its main rival, the Congress, in a big way because of the direct fights.


The analysis shows that BJP defeated all three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) – in the direct fights. This is attributed as one of the reasons for the BJP’s historic poll success.


The BJP contested 147 out of 288 seats. In 76 constituencies, it faced Congress. BJP secured victory in 65 seats and lost only 11 seats, making it a whopping 86 per cent of the total direct fights. This was followed by an even stronger performance against NCP (SP). Of the total 39 fights with Sharad Pawar’s party, BJP captured 37 seats making it 95 per cent of the total fights with NCP (SP). BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) were head-to-head in 32 constituencies, of which BJP emerged victorious in 29 seats, making this 91 per cent of the total direct contests.


According to a BJP strategist the party had bargained hard with its allies, Shiv Sena and NCP to get the desired constituencies in the seat sharing formula. “We had studied to potential candidates of the MVA. That helped us in choosing the seats where we can register comfortable victories,” the strategist said.


BJP spokesperson Niranjan Shetty attributed the success to all the party workers who worked hard to boost development, infrastructure in the state. He gave credit to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his contribution to the party’s success.


Shetty pointed out that in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray had stalled all the “novel” and “legendary” projects that Fadnavis had started when he had taken over as CM, making it very easy for the people of Maharashtra to strike a comparison between both the leaders and the potential they had for serving the people. “Devendra Fadnavis gave up his post very easily for the larger good. There are many such examples like Venkaiah Naidu who was BJP National President and later worked as the Vice President of India because that was the need of the hour. We seldom care about our posts,” Shetty told The Perfect Voice.


Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe refused to call the election results as the people’s mandate. “This is not at all a Janata mandate. Despite Maharashtra struggling with so many basic social issues, how can BJP acquire such a huge mandate is the question. If a student copies and fails with just passing marks, it can go unnoticed, but if a student copies and bags the number one position, something is fishy. Why is the BJP scared of ballot papers?” he said.

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