'Murder Of Democracy': Uddhav Thackeray On Detention Of Oppn MPs During EC Protest Over 'Vote Chori'
Uddhav Thackeray criticised the BJP after opposition MPs were detained during a protest against the Election Commission over alleged "vote theft." He accused the government of "murdering democracy" and questioned the EC's authority after its response to SC directives.
Mumbai, Aug 11 (PTI) Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday hit out at the BJP-led Centre over the detention of Opposition MPs in New Delhi during their march against the Election Commission (EC), saying the world has seen that democracy is being murdered in India.
Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Thackeray maintained the BJP-led NDA government has smeared democracy with its own hands by detaining Members of Parliament (MPs) protesting against the EC over the "vote theft" issue.
Dubbing the protest march as a fight against the poll body, the former Maharashtra CM, whose party is a constituent of the Opposition alliance INDIA, said it is now evident why the government is interfering in the agitation.
"You (the government) are crushing the fight for democracy. The entire world has seen that India, which is considered to be the biggest democracy, is being murdered in broad daylight," Thackeray said.
INDI bloc MPs, including Leaders of Opposition Rahul Gandhi (Lok Sabha) and Mallikarjun Kharge (Rajya Sabha), took out a protest march on Monday from Parliament House to the EC headquarters against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged "vote chori", but were stopped midway by police and detained amid high drama.
Police put up barricades outside PTI Building on the way to prevent the MPs from marching forward.
As the protesting parliamentarians were stopped, many of them sat on the road and raised slogans, while some women MPs, including Mahua Moitra (TMC), Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani (both Congress), climbed the barricading and raised slogans against the poll panel.
The detained MPs were later released.
In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on Saturday, the poll panel said there would be no deletion of any voter's name from the draft electoral roll in Bihar without issuance of prior notice, affording opportunity of being heard and a reasoned order.
It also said statutory framework does not require it to prepare or share any separate list of names of people not included in the draft electoral rolls, or publish the reasons for non-inclusion of anyone in the draft rolls for any reason.
Reacting to it, Thackeray asked if the Election Commission or Chief Election Commissioner was bigger than Supreme Court.
"This is an insult of the Supreme Court," he said.
On Sunday, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut had claimed two persons had met Uddhav Thackeray ahead of Maharashtra assembly polls in 2024 and promised to ensure victory "through EVMs" in 60-65 tricky seats.
Raut claimed the same set of people had met Thackeray during the Lok Sabha polls as well.
However, the Sena (UBT) chief declined to entertain them by asserting his faith in the electoral process and democracy, Raut said, pointing out to Maha Vikas Aghadi's victory in 30 of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
Speaking on the issue, Thackeray said, "We meet such people during the elections but we never took them seriously. We never wanted to win like this and did not pay heed to it." Thackeray said he had met similar people in the past as well.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
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