
Uddhav Thackeray launched a blistering attack on the Election Commission Monday afternoon, accusing it of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party to commit voter fraud by manipulating electoral rolls for last year's Maharashtra Assembly and Karnataka Lok Sabha polls.
He also criticised the poll panel for undermining the authority of the Supreme Court.
"We must raise this issue across the state... from where did so many lakhs of votes suddenly come? We will have to check if extra voters were added under all our home addresses."
He was referring to claims by Maharashtra's opposition alliance - the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which also includes the Congress and Sharad Pawar's NCP - that an eye-watering one crore new voters were added between the federal election in May and the Assembly election in November.
The MVA romped to victory in May but slipped to a big defeat in November.
Mr Thackeray also repeated what Sharad Pawar said - that he had been approached by two individuals offering a 'guarantee' of 160 of 288 Assembly seats - about the election rigging.
The ex-Maharashtra Chief Minister's comments came after opposition leaders, including his party's Sanjay Raut, were briefly detained by Delhi Police during a protest march over the voter fraud allegations and, specifically, the re-verification of voter lists before the Bihar election.
READ | Rahul Gandhi, Opposition Leaders Detained By Police Over Poll Body March
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were also detained in the fracas, and at least two Trinamool MPs, including Mahua Moitra, fainted amid the muggy Delhi monsoon.
Mr Thackeray criticised the detention - which the police said was because the protesting politicians did not have the necessary permits - and called it a "blot on democracy". He also accused the government of misleading his colleagues, i.e., he claimed they were told they were being taken to the Election Commission's office but were then taken to the police station.
He also singled out Rahul Gandhi's PowerPoint presentations last week, in which he presented data that questioned over one lakh votes in a segment in the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat, which his party was expected to win but the BJP claimed by fewer than 33,000.
"Rahul Gandhi showed proof of vote theft but, instead of acting, the EC demanded a signed 'affidavit'. Are they higher than the Supreme Court? Saying 'we are not bound...' is an insult to the highest court," the Shiv Sena (UBT) boss raged.
Mr Thackeray also took aim at the EC over the special intensive revision, or SIR, of the Bihar voter list, an exercise that ran into controversy over the timing and allegations it targets marginalised community voters, who traditionally opt for one of the opposition parties.
On the hacking of EVMs, or electronic voting machines - something the opposition, particularly the Congress, frequently raises when responding to election defeats - Mr Thackeray claimed a BJP leader (whom he did not name) showed him how the devices could, in fact, be hacked.
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