Mumbai, Nov 1 (IANS) Shiv Sena-UBT Chief Uddhav Thackeray, on Saturday, made a formal announcement with regard to his party’s alliance with his cousin Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, saying that they have come together to protect the interest of voters, the Marathi Manoos, the Hindus and Maharashtra.

He made this announcement during his speech at the morcha organised by the opposition parties in Mumbai to highlight the errors in the electoral rolls, including duplicate and bogus voters and to protest against the vote theft.

“Both Raj and I have come together for the voters. For the Marathi Manoos, the Hindus and for Maharashtra. You should support us as we move forward. Show your support to us by raising both hands and send this photo to the king of vote-stealing. If you steal votes, this fist will not remain without hitting on the head of the vote stealer,” the Shiv Sena-UBT Chief warned.

He also announced that the Opposition will approach the court in the next few days demanding that the local and civic body elections should be held in the state only after rectifying the errors in the electoral rolls.

“If you see a thief, beat him there. Beat him through democratic means. We do not want to take the law into our own hands. The ‘anaconda’ (referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah) is sitting. I had appealed earlier too. As the elections approach, their oppression will start. We are following legal means. We will go to court in the next few days. Let’s see if we get justice from the court or not. We want justice now. After giving all the evidence with regard to errors, I am sure that we will get justice in that court. Otherwise, the people’s court is ready to take the decision,” he said.

“Why am I saying anaconda? I am not saying this to make fun or joke. They (BJP and Union Home Minister Amit Shah) are still hungry, they stole our party, stole our symbol, stole our name, they are trying to steal my father. That is not enough, so now they are trying to steal votes,” he claimed.

Thackeray also said that someone has applied online in the name of Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray for verification of the name in the voter list, adding that this application was made on the October 23 through the Saksham app.

“I have filed a complaint in due course. Who did this? This means that an attempt has been made to generate an OTP from a fake number in my name. Further an attempt has been so made to hack this whole matter. There has there been an attempt to remove the names of all four members of my family, including me, from the voter list? This needs to be found out. Because there is definitely some conspiracy in this,” he alleged.

MNS Chief Raj Thackeray showed proofs of duplicate voters and appealed to his party workers that if a duplicate voter is seen in the upcoming elections, they should be beaten and removed from the polling booths.

“Whenever elections are held, you should focus on the voters’ lists. The faces of voters should be known. If these duplicate voters come after that, they should be beaten up and removed from polling booths. Then they should be handed over to the police,” he said.

“Everyone is talking about duplicate voters. BJP as well as the NCP are talking about it. So why the rush to hold elections? The local and civic body elections should be held after cleaning up the electoral rolls especially after removing the errors,” the MNS Chief added.

NCP-SP Chief Sharad Pawar said the opposition parties have joined hands to preserve the rights given by the Constitution in a democracy.

“The elections were held and what happened in those elections, especially in the Assembly elections, shook the faith of the common man in parliamentary democracy. Today, people are restless in many places. Power is being misused continuously. There may be political differences. There may be conflicts in the elections, but we will have to forget all these things and become one. We will have to preserve the rights of democracy. We will have to move forward with this perspective in mind,” he added.

Pawar referred to the complaints made by some voters in some places about fake Aadhaar cards.

The District collectors asked the complainants to prove that despite given enough evidence, he said.

“But cases were registered against those who made the complaints. This means that this government is supporting all this. Our ideologies are different. But if we want to preserve the parliamentary democracy of the country, if we want to preserve the right to vote, you and I have to be united. The leaders on the dais today have come together with this feeling,” he noted.

Veteran Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said the Opposition’s demand is that the errors in the electoral rolls be removed and then the local and civic body elections be held in the state.

“Voters’ lists for the local and civic body elections have been released. There are bogus people registered in the voters’ lists. Local body elections are being held while keeping those names. Our demand is that the voter#’ lists must be corrected,” he added.

–IANS

sj/khz