Thackerays back Rahul's claim, ask workers to be alert

MUMBAI: In a build-up to municipal polls in Maharashtra, the Thackeray cousins are now invoking 'vote chori', backing Congress MP Rahul Gandhi 's charges of irregularities in polling and voter enumeration. A day after MNS chief Raj Thackeray raised this issue in Pune, Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday asked party workers to be alert to voter lists and ensure it did not include bogus voters.

While addressing a meeting of party workers in Dahisar, Uddhav said, "Keep your eyes peeled open and check the voter's list to ensure that there are no bogus voters and people are not voting 2-3 times."

"How did the number of voters in the state increase by 40-42 lakh? Find out who are these people who have inflated the voter's list and don't let them vote," he said, adding, "If elections are conducted in a genuine manner, it will not be possible for the governing parties to win. Especially in Maharashtra."

Sena UBT's Sanjay Raut said, "This issue was raised by Raj Thackeray earlier as well. PM Modi has come to office by stealing votes. This is how the army in Pakistan comes to power."

Raj on Saturday had said, "I have been saying this for years. I met opposition members including NCP SP's Sharad Pawar and TMC's Mamata Banerjee and said that we should boycott Lok Sabha polls for this reason. Our votes are not coming to us. They are being stolen. Those in office have stolen votes."

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis hit back at Raj and Uddhav, saying they needed to analyse why public has lost faith in them. "Until they accept the truth, they will remain in this state," he said.