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Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole stated that they do not see any kind of transparency in the upcoming assembly elections in the state a day after the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) accused the ruling coalition of misusing the government machinery to remove legitimate voters from the voter lists.
"As Sanjay Raut said the Mahayuti government, in the fear of losing the elections, is removing the names of the original people from the elections and including bogus voters...We have written a letter to the Election Commission...We are not seeing any kind of transparency in the elections...It seems that the Election Commission is sitting under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's feet...," Patole told reporters here. Nana Patole also said that an MVA delegation met the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra on Friday to inform him about the alleged manipulation of the voter list. "Yesterday, the MVA delegation met the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra to make him aware of sinful activities being carried out in the voter list. We will submit the report signed by leaders of MVA to the Election Commission... Nana Patole made serious allegations on Friday at a press conference, "The BJP is making changes to the voter list and removing names of the voters from the electoral rolls, despite the Election Commission's assurance of free and fair elections in Maharashtra." Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut accused the Mahayuti of misusing the Constitution. "Mahayuti whom we call 'Lafangey' and the constitution has given them special rights. The rights are being misused by these people...MVA leaders met the Election Commission yesterday...They told the Election Commission that by making an app, work is being done to reduce people's votes and add bogus votes...," Raut told reporters on Saturday, alleging that, "About 10,000 bogus votes are being added in every area..." He warned that the opposition would protest against the Election Commission and termed it a conspiracy. "Today is the issue of Maharashtra's future, we will work to bring this conspiracy to the fore...If needed, we will also take out a big rally against the Election Commission," Raut added. NCP-SCP leader Jitendra Awhad told reporters, "This is a serious issue. BJP asked to conduct a survey and mark their non-voters. They then brought a special application and used to completely delete the names and brought new names..." Assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20 with counting of votes on November 23. With this, the political parties have begun gearing up for an election that will be unprecedented in many ways. MVA is the alliance of Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT (Uddhav Thackeray's faction) and NCP-SP (Sharad Pawar's faction). They are up against the ruling Mahayuti- the alliance of BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction). In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Congress and unified Shiv Sena won 154 out of 288 seats as part of the MVA coalition. However, this time around the Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar's NCP and Congress are in alliance to counter the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance. In the Lok Sabha election held this year, MVA won 30 of the state's 48 Lok Sabha seats. The ruling alliance won 17. One seat went to an Independent candidate. (ANI)
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