MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday hit out at Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and MNS chief Raj Thackeray over their joint protest march in Mumbai, calling the cousins “Ghajinis” and accusing them of venting frustration against the Election Commission after being rejected by voters.Fadnavis said the rally, held to demand the ouster of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and reforms in the electoral process, was an attempt by the Thackerays to regain lost political ground.“Despite all the hype, the attendance at the march was thin,” Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur on the sidelines of a programme.Taking a dig at the cousins, he referred to the 2008 Hindi film Ghajini, whose protagonist suffers from short-term memory loss.“They have become like ‘Ghajini’. I want to remind these ‘Ghajinis’ that Gyanesh Kumar became Chief Election Commissioner in 2025, whereas elections in Maharashtra were held in 2024, and SIR began in 2026,” Fadnavis said.“How can the SIR of 2026 and the person who became Chief Election Commissioner in 2025 affect the 2024 elections?” he asked.Fadnavis also accused the opposition leaders of making false claims about the electoral process.“One should at least try to sound believable while speaking lies. But they are blatantly speaking falsehoods, and when people have rejected them, they vent their frustration here on the Election Commission,” he said.Earlier on Sunday, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray jointly led the ‘Garjana’ protest march from Metro Cinema to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in south Mumbai.The rally focused on demands including scrapping Special Intensive Revisions (SIR) of electoral rolls, restoring paper ballots and changing the system for appointing the Chief Election Commissioner. The organisers also demanded the removal of Gyanesh Kumar.The protest was held without party flags, with only the national tricolour allowed. Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Vijay Wadettiwar, along with NCP (SP) leaders Jayant Patil, Shashikant Shinde, Jitendra Awhad and Anil Deshmukh, participated in the rally.The crowd was estimated at around 8,000-10,000 and stretched from the Metro Cinema junction towards the BMC headquarters.
Uddhav attacks EC, questions SIR
Addressing the gathering, Uddhav accused Gyanesh Kumar of functioning as a “weapon” for the BJP and demanded greater accountability in the electoral system.He questioned the Centre’s stated objective behind SIR and asked how many illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had actually been identified and removed from electoral rolls through the exercise.“If SIRs were conducted to weed out Bangladeshis from the voters’ list, then how many of them residing illegally in the country did the government find?” Uddhav asked.He also questioned how large numbers of illegal immigrants could have entered Maharashtra when the international border is controlled by the Centre.Uddhav claimed that around 13 crore voters had been deleted from draft electoral rolls across the country, describing the figure as roughly equivalent to Maharashtra’s population. Citing the restoration of some deleted voters in West Bengal, he said re-verifying all voters left out nationwide could take about 144 months.He also demanded reforms in the appointment of the CEC, questioning why the post itself could not be decided through an election.“If we can have elections for the President, why can’t we have an election for the CEC who is responsible for conducting elections across the entire country?” Uddhav said.He criticised the present selection mechanism, pointing out that the Chief Justice of India was replaced by a Union minister on the selection panel.Uddhav also questioned the legal protection available to the CEC and asked why the poll chief enjoyed protection from prosecution for actions taken while holding the post.
Raj Thackeray raises Maharashtra vote figures
Raj Thackeray questioned the increase in the number of voters in Maharashtra between the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections.He claimed that nearly one crore votes were added during the six-month period between the two elections. Raj said the BJP’s vote count increased from around 2.4 crore in the Lok Sabha polls to 3.1 crore in the assembly election.He argued that such changes could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.NCP (SP) state president Shashikant Shinde also questioned the status of nearly two crore voters who, he alleged, had been declared bogus but were still able to vote in the assembly election.Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat alleged that the MVA’s defeat in Maharashtra was the result of “vote theft” and said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had repeatedly raised the issue and presented evidence.
Police book rally organisers
The rally later led to a police case against its organisers for allegedly holding the protest without permission.Azad Maidan police invoked Sections 223, 189 and 190 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, relating to disobedience of an order by a public servant and offences linked to unlawful assembly.Uddhav also used the rally to highlight Maharashtra’s drought situation, citing the plight of farmers and referring to a farmer family in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar whose soybean, chilli and corn crops allegedly failed, leaving the family burdened with loans. He said the farmer’s son later died by suicide.The protest came two days after another demonstration in Mumbai demanding the removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.(With PTI inputs)
