BJP accuses Uddhav and Raj Thackeray of engaging in ‘vote jihad’

BOTH the ruling and Opposition parties agree there are problems in the voter lists but the debate has turned bitter The BJP has accused the Opposition of fighting a ldquovote jihadrdquo while the Shiv Sena UBT has taunted Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis by referring to him as Maharashtrarsquos ldquoPappurdquo as the BJP leader had accepted that there were errors in the electoral rollsSenior BJP leader Ashish Shelar accused the Opposition especially Shiv Sena UBT leader Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS chief Raj Thackeray running a campaign selectively against Hindu Marathispeaking and Dalit voters and sparing Muslims while presenting examples of fake and duplicate names of votersOn Monday taking a dig at the Thackeray cousins Shelar said ldquoThere are errors in the list We do not want to discriminate against voters By citing only Hindu names while describing irregularities in the electoral rolls the Opposition especially Raj and Uddhav is doing nothing but lsquovote jihadrsquo The Thackeray cousins can continue their fight against the BJP but I request them to reject the ideology of minority appeasement which other Opposition partners Congress have been doing for agesrdquoOppositionrsquos allegationsThe BJP leader was responding to the Opposition protest rally against irregularities in voter lists held in Mumbai on Saturday In this rally Raj gave examples of Marathi voters surnamed Bhoir and Patil registered in Mumbai and outside the city He also claimed these people were voting in the Malabar Hill Assembly constituency and at other places outside MumbaiReplying to the charges the former Mumbai BJP president and minister in the Mahayuti government further cited the Assembly constituencies of Rohit Pawar NCPSP Nana Patole Congress Jayant Patil NCPSP Jitendra Awhad NCPSP Varun Sardesai of the Shiv Sena UBT among other Opposition leaders ldquoThe winning margin of almost every candidate I have mentioned is smaller than the number of duplicate voters from the Muslim community registered in their respective constituenciesrdquo Shelar allegedWhile presenting examples of repeated dubaar voters in 31 Assembly constituencies the BJP minister asked Should I say that theOpposition candidates won because of voters from minority communitiesThe Opposition while citing irregularities in the voter lists has been claiming that ruling party members won the Assembly election due to anomalies in the electoral rolls and have demanded the resignation of ruling party MLAsReferring to this demand Shelar asked ldquoOn the same grounds will Raj and Uddhav ask for the resignation of members from the Opposition camp toordquoFurther drawing parallels between Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections held in 2024 Shelar claimed that MVA bagged 250 crore votes during the general elections while Mahayuti got 248 crore votes ldquoThere are around 16 lakh duplicate voters most of them from minority and other communities The difference is only two lakh votes but the difference between the seats won by the MVA is much higher than Mahayuti Should we say that the MVA won the parliamentary polls with the help of these minority votersrdquo he statedTaking a dig at the Opposition and citing Congresss opposition to the Special Intensive Review SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar Shelar dared the Thackeray cousins to come openly in support of the SIR ldquoThe BJP has been demanding a revision in voter lists Both Raj and Uddhav should support the drive if they really want clean electoral listsrdquo the BJP minister addedThe BJP also slammed Raj and Uddhav for ldquotargeting Marathi speakersrdquo due to errors in the voter lists ldquoInitially the Thackeray cousins targeted people from Bihar Later Gujaratis Marwaris Jains and now Marathi speakersrdquo Shelar claimedThe cousins have set aside their differences after 20 years and united for the cause of Marathi and Maharashtra prideUddhav reactsShiv Sena UBT leader sarcastically applauded Shelar for admitting there were lapses in the electoral rolls ldquoUsually I do not react to Ashish Shelarrsquos comments But today I should thank him for accepting that there are errors in the voter lists By accepting the anomalies Shelar has shown that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is Maharashtrarsquos Pappurdquo he statedUddhav refuted the charge that the Opposition selectively mentioned the names of Hindus ldquoWe have shown cases where a personrsquos name is Hindu and his sonrsquos name is that of a Muslim This shows that we objected to errors not individuals based on their religion Neither have we spared any particular communityrdquo the Sena UBT chief addedUddhavs Pappu jibe at the CM comes a weekafter Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray gave a presentation on errors in voter lists in his area Reacting to this Fadnavis had said ldquoI advise Aaditya not to become Maharashtrarsquos Pappurdquo referring to a term used by ruling parties to mock Congress leader Rahul GandhiOn the otherhand MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande asked why the BJP was responding when questions had been put to the Election Commission ldquoWhy is the BJP getting so worked uprdquo Deshpande asked GenZ mentionReferring to June 1 2025 as the cutoff date for the electoral list for localbody polls Uddhav said Those completing18 years after the cutoff date cannot vote What is the reason for not allowing these voters to exercise their franchise Is the BJP government fearing GenZ voters