Uddhav Thackeray demands immediate arrest of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, fresh polls in Maharashtra, TN, Bengal

Mumbai, Sep 23 (IANS) In a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), Shiv Sena-UBT Chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday demanded the immediate arrest of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Thackeray accused CEC Kumar of acting as the “kingpin of a gang” destroying democracy and engineering splits in political parties at the behest of the Central government.

He also demanded the scrapping of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Assembly elections and holding fresh polls.

Thackeray’s sharp reaction came following a media report which revealed a major internal rift within the three-member election panel.

According to the report, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi submitted a formal complaint to the Cabinet Secretary T.V. Somanathan, alleging that CEC Gyanesh Kumar had been taking unilateral decisions regarding Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) without consulting them or heeding their dissent.

“The internal whistleblowing by Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu has exposed how arbitrary this administration was,” Thackeray said, commending the Election Commissioners for showing courage.

“The media and the public must break free from fear. When democracy is being openly murdered by a gang of political dacoits, the citizens and the press must stand up to safeguard the Constitution.”

Reacting to the revelations, the former Maharashtra Chief Minister said that the news confirmed what the Opposition had been alleging for years regarding the central agency’s arbitrary functioning.

“Today, the unmasked face of Gyanesh Kumar stands exposed before the nation. He is the principal mastermind of the gang that breaks political parties, steals party names, and murders democracy. He must be thrown into prison immediately,” Thackeray asserted.

Taking a jibe at the internal division within the Election Commission of India, the former Maharashtra Chief Minister added, “With two out of three Commissioners revolting against his (Gyanesh Kumar’s) arbitrary style, the majority is now against the Chief Election Commissioner. In essence, Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi have ousted Gyanesh Kumar from the commission. I congratulate them for showing the courage to stand up.”

Questioning the integrity of recent electoral processes, Thackeray alleged widespread voter list manipulation in the state.

He claimed that more than 45 lakh names were arbitrarily inserted into the voter list during the Maharashtra Assembly elections, only for 40 lakh names to be questioned or flagged for removal during the subsequent SIR process.

Thackeray alleged that the ECI’s first targeted blow was struck against his party by freezing its original name and symbol during a key bye-election, before illegally handing them over to the rebel faction.

He noted that identical tactics were subsequently used against Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and are now being applied against the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.

“Even the name of BJP veteran L.K. Advani went missing from the voter list. Is this how they treat the man responsible for bringing them to power?” Thackeray asked.

Demanding decisive accountability, the Shiv Sena-UBT Chief urged that all elections overseen by the current leadership—including the Maharashtra Assembly elections—be declared null and void.

He called for fresh polls conducted strictly via physical ballot paper rather than EVMs.

Raising questions about the political influence behind the Election Commission’s functioning, Thackeray demanded an independent probe into whether the poll agency was taking direct orders from the Union Home Ministry.

“If the ECI is operating on instructions from the Home Ministry, the nation has a right to know if the Union Home Minister (Amit Shah) himself is directing these operations,” he said.

He warned that if democratic institutions continue to be compromised, citizens will be forced to take to the streets in protest.

Calling on the entire Opposition unitedly to step up, Thackeray also urged any “patriotic members within the Bharatiya Janata Party” to join the demand for a return to paper ballots to safeguard Indian democracy.

–IANS

sj/khz