Uncontested victories effectively rob 'Gen Z' and first-time voters of their universal adult franchise, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray claimed on Sunday, while urging the State Election Commission to cancel results in 68 civic wards where ruling Mahayuti nominees were declared winners unopposed.
Sixty-eight candidates from the Mahayuti, including 44 from the BJP, have won without a contest in Maharashtra, mainly due to the withdrawal of contestants from other parties or rebels.
In the company of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, the former Maharashtra chief minister warned that democracy must not be overrun by "mobocracy". The Thackeray cousins were unveiling a joint manifesto for the upcoming polls to the Mumbai civic body.
He also demanded the suspension of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, who has been accused of interfering in the nomination process and tampering with CCTV footage linked to the exercise. "He is a Speaker. He doesn't belong to any party and has the responsibility to conduct work without any allegiance. He should be booked for violating the poll code," PTI quoted him as saying.
Accusing the BJP of double standards, Raj Thackeray said the BJP had approached the Supreme Court in similar instances in West Bengal, where ruling party candidates were chosen unopposed in local body polls, and asked the ruling party to clarify this issue. Since the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was dislodged and Eknath Shinde helmed the state (in June 2022), the wealth of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is being splurged on contractors, Thackeray alleged. He added that after vote-stealing, the ruling parties are now stealing candidates, news agency PTI reported.
Referring to the uncontested victories in the run-up to the 15 January elections to 29 civic bodies, Uddhav said, "If the SEC has courage, it should cancel elections where candidates were chosen unopposed and initiate the poll process again in those civic wards."
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According to PTI, Uddhav said that if the BMC's expenditure budget is ₹15,000 crore, then the amount needed to give to contractors for different works in the form of advance mobilisation is ₹3 lakh crore, which is a "scam". He alleged kickback money was being used for the civic polls.
Meanwhile, in a warning to the ruling dispensation, Raj Thackeray said power is not permanent and claimed the BJP was setting a wrong precedent. The ruling party should not complain when its successors resort to such tactics in a more refined way, the MNS leader said.
A total of 15,931 candidates are in the fray for 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards in 29 municipal corporations. Except for Mumbai, which has 227 seats, the rest are multi-member wards.
Votes will be counted on 16 January.
