"When there is massive chaos in the voter lists, announcing local body elections without rectifying them is inappropriate. Although the Election Commission says that it will mark duplicate and multiple names with a star, why doesn’t it simply remove them to make the voter lists error-free? It provides no answer to this," claimed Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Harshvardhan Sapkal, criticising the EC and accused it of working under the government pressure.
An important meeting of senior Congress leaders was held on Tuesday at Tilak Bhavan under the chairmanship of Sapkal. Those present included Satej Patil, Leader of the Congress Legislative Council group; MP Rajani Patil, AICC General Secretary; Naseem Khan, member of the Congress Working Committee and former minister; Manikrao Thakre, and others. The meeting discussed the current political situation in the state and the upcoming local body elections. The Pradesh Congress Election Committee will meet on November 12 and 13 to finalise the names of candidates.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Sapkal said that the BJP government came to power through vote theft, and the Congress has been consistently raising its voice against it. "A delegation of all-party representatives had met the State Election Commission and demanded correction of the voter lists, but the Commission has failed to provide any satisfactory response. Conducting free and fair elections is the Commission’s responsibility in a democracy, but instead of owning up, it is running away from accountability. Now the people themselves will teach them a lesson,” Sapkal asserted.
A deeply emotional song depicting the real-life struggles of indebted farmers, 'Karjbajari He Ghar Tujhya Lekarache' (This Indebted Home Belongs to Your Child"), was released in the presence of Sapkal and senior leaders. The song has been written and produced by Vijay Mundale and Arjun Yuvnate, with vocals by Manish Rajgire.
On the occasion, Sapkal reiterated the demand for a comprehensive loan waiver to free farmers from the burden of debt and called for additional support measures to rescue them from the crisis of farmer suicides. Through this song, the lyricists have also made an emotional appeal to the government to take immediate action to alleviate farmers’ distress.
