Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday rejected Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s call to boycott elections, saying participation in elections was a democratic right.“I do not accept that we should boycott the election. It is our right to a democratic government; that is not a correct strategy,” Chavan said.Chavan made the remarks amid a political confrontation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra and the functioning of the Election Commission. On Sunday, Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray led a joint protest march in Mumbai against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, demanding the cancellation of the SIR exercise and raising questions over the poll panel’s functioning.Recalling the 2024 election, Chavan said he had raised concerns over alleged duplicate voters being added to electoral rolls and voting multiple times.“When my election took place in 2024, I protested, saying in my case duplicate voters were added who voted multiple times,” he said.Chavan further alleged that some minority and poor voters had been denied their voting rights, including people who supported the Congress.“In some places, minority voters were deprived of voting rights; in some places, poor people were deprived of voting rights; those who favoured the Congress party,” he said.“This is not vote chori; it is election chori,” Chavan alleged.His remarks came as the Thackeray cousins jointly led what was described as the ‘Virat Garjana Morcha’ in Mumbai, with Congress and NCP (SP) leaders also participating. Raj Thackeray called for the SIR exercise in Maharashtra to be scrapped and for elections to return to ballot papers.“Our demand is that the entire SIR conducted in Maharashtra should be cancelled,” Raj Thackeray said.“The law says that SIR is conducted if an emergency situation arises,” he said, questioning the circumstances in which the revision was undertaken.
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Raj Thackeray also alleged that 40 to 60 lakh voters were added during the Maharashtra Assembly elections and claimed that two crore voters were now being removed through SIR.“Forty to sixty lakh voters were added during the Assembly elections, and power was captured through this. And now, through SIR, two crore people are being removed. Who are these two crore voters?” he asked.Uddhav Thackeray separately questioned the appointment process for Election Commissioners and criticised the removal of the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee.“The first question is how was Gyanesh Kumar appointed?” Thackeray asked.The Election Commission has maintained that the electoral-roll revision is intended to update and clean the rolls, with mechanisms available for claims and objections.
