മഹാരാഷ്ട്രയിലെ വോട്ടർ പട്ടികയിലെ ക്രമക്കേടുകൾക്കെതിരെ താക്കറെ സഹോദരന്മാരുടെ വമ്പൻ പ്രതിഷേധ മാർച്ച്

Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray led a march in Mumbai on Sunday (October 4, 2026) and demanded that Gyanesh Kumar, CEC, resign and that the SIR of voter rolls in Maharashtra be scrapped. The march added to the campaign that Opposition parties have run against the Election Commission over the SIR and the working of the panel, and the police said they would file cases against the organisers for gathering without permission.

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The march began at Metro Cinema and ended at the BMC headquarters. Workers of the Congress and the NCP (SP) also took part. The police said the administration had not granted permission, and that cases would be filed against the organisers under the Section that covers assembly without permission. Mumbai police informed that approximately around 6000 protesters gathered.

Uddhav Thackeray's charges

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Uddhav Thackeray said decisions on verifying voters had been centralised. He cited a letter from S. Chockalingam, officer in charge of elections in Maharashtra, to the Commission, and said the officer wrote after he realised that the right to decide who may vote did not rest with BLOs and lay with Mr. Kumar. "Who is he to decide this?" he asked.

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He said election officials in the State should hold powers of their own. He called Mr. Kumar "a weapon" in the hands of the ruling side and said that through him they were taking away the right to vote. He said he questioned Mr. Kumar's appointment as CEC, the change in the composition of the committee that selects election commissioners, and the choice of Mr. Kumar over the Opposition's objections.

"You can control institutions, but streets belong to us," Mr. Uddhav Thackeray said. He said that if a dictator was being made under Make in India, those gathered would bury that dictatorship. He said the removal of around 13 crore names from the rolls in draft across the country, and 2 crore in the State, amounted to disenfranchisement. He said names had been removed in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal too, asked whether voters could vote in bypolls, and noted that the matter was before the Supreme Court.

Raj Thackeray's arguments

Mr. Raj Thackeray, at the Virat Garjana Morcha meeting, asked for Mr. Kumar's resignation, the scrapping of the SIR and the replacement of EVMs with ballot papers. He cited a letter by Mr. R.K. Singh, who served as Secretary in the Home Ministry, which said a revision could be carried out when reasons exist, with the reasons recorded in writing and for a constituency. The law does not permit an SIR across India, he said, and added that a disaster, migration, duplication of names or complaints about the voters' list are the grounds for revision. In his view, the exercise now has no basis in law.

He said voters usually increase before Assembly elections, and that two crore people had now been taken off the rolls. He questioned the rise in the number of voters between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. He asked the Commission to state how many of those left out of the roll in draft had been identified as immigrants from Bangladesh. "Are the two crore people from Bangladesh? Give details, we will find them and throw them out of the country," he said.

Mr. Raj Thackeray said he had spoken about vote theft with Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee, who was the head of government in West Bengal. He said he had raised the charge since 2017-18 and had asked leaders of the Opposition then to boycott elections so that irregularities would come to light. He asked parties to demand cancellation of the exercise and said that if EVMs are shut down and voters use ballot papers, it will show who stands where. Who comes to power tomorrow does not matter, he said.

Farmers' distress

Mr. Uddhav Thackeray also spoke of drought and said the condition of farmers was beyond imagination. He said Jijabai Kachate of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar had sown soybean and it did not grow, and that her son ended his life in the field because of a loan. Nobody visits such families, he said. He accused the ruling side of seeking only to split his party and said they steal the donation box of the Ram temple.