MLAs of deputy CMs Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar will go over to BJP: Rohit
Mumbai (PTI): NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar on Thursday claimed that several MLAs of the ruling allies Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra will join the Bharatiya Janata Party before the 2029 elections.
Speaking at a press conference here, he also alleged that the BJP was poaching the MLAs of the NCP led by deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar "one by one".
Shiv Sena's Sanjay Gaikwad had alleged that there were more than one lakh bogus voters in his constituency of Buldhana, and despite his complaints the district collector's office was not updating the electoral rolls, he said.
Elsewhere, Sangram Jagtap of the NCP was toeing the BJP line in his speeches, asking people to buy things for Diwali only from Hindu traders, and was unrepentant even after Ajit Pawar reprimanded him, said Rohit.
"BJP is breaking Ajit Pawar's MLAs one by one," he claimed.
Shinde and Ajit Pawar, both deputy chief ministers in the BJP-led government, will soon feel the need to find ways to stop the "vote theft", Rohit Pawar further said.
After the unfavourable results for the BJP-led Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha elections, there were malpractices such as registration of bogus voters, bulk deletion of genuine voters and double registration of voters, he alleged.
`Unfavourable' voters were shown as dead, and bogus voting took place in the name of dead persons, Pawar claimed.
Between 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 32 lakh voters were added, which amounted to addition of 6.5 lakh voters per year or 54,000 per month. But between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra assembly polls, 48 lakh voters were added in just six months, the NCP (SP) leader said.
In his own Karjat Jamkhed assembly constituency, 14,292 voters were added, 5,360 names were deleted and 14,162 duplicate names were inserted in voter rolls after the Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.
There were instances where the Aadhaar card of a voter in one constituency was used for the registration of another voter in a different constituency with the photo and name changed, the NCP (SP) MLA said.
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Women's quota bill would have ensured defeat of democracy, Constitution: Aaditya Thackeray
Mumbai (PTI): Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday said that the passage of the women's quota bill would have ensured a "total defeat of democracy", alleging that the legislation, linked with a delimitation exercise, was a political tool designed to reduce the voice of states.
Thackeray, in a post on X, claimed that the Bill would have amended the Constitution for the political means of the ruling regime to increase seats, reduce the voice of many states and enable the gerrymandering of constituencies to ensure unfair victories.
"The very amendment that would have ensured the total defeat of democracy and the Constitution in India stands rejected by the unity of the Opposition MPs," he wrote.
The legislation should have been called "Delimitation to ensure unfair victory Bill", the former minister said, adding that there was a genuine need to enable 33 per cent reservation for women in the current number of seats.
"Now, it is up to the government to ensure that it is implemented in the 543 seats of the Lok Sabha for the 2029 elections and all elections across India, if that is the real intent of the government," he wrote.
A Constitution Amendment Bill to implement reservation for women in legislatures in 2029 and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats was defeated on Friday in the Lower House.
While 298 members voted in support of the Bill, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the Bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
According to the Constitution Amendment Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
