You too, Raj Saheb…?

 

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Rajsaheb Thackeray, while speaking at a gathering of his workers, directly targeted the government system while expressing doubts about the results of the assembly elections.

The results of the assembly elections were announced on November 23, 2024. After a significantly long time of two months and eight days, Raj Thackeray has now commented on these results. Many office bearers and people’s representatives of the Congress, UBT and Sharad Pawar groups had submitted a representation to the Election Commission regarding these results. In this representation, all these groups, mainly the defeated candidates, had raised their complaints and doubts regarding the counting of votes.

The Election Commission has effectively resolved all these doubts and complaints. After the results, some defeated candidates of the Congress, UBT and Sharad Pawar faction had filed petitions in the court challenging the results. After the Election Commission’s reply, many withdrew their petitions, while some canceled their decision to go to court altogether.

While speaking at a workers’ rally, Raj Thackeray tried to raise doubts about the results by giving examples like how senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, who has been elected 8 times with huge votes, lost by 10,000 votes this time. Since we have accepted the democratic system, everyone is given the right to express their opinion. Rajsaheb Thackeray has made this comment also owing to the rights given by the same Constitution. There is no reason to have any objection to doubting Raj Thackeray’s opinion. However, in the course of his speech, he made a statement that, ‘If this is the case, why contest elections at all?’.

Many people have doubted and made many allegations about the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). The Election Commission has answered all these doubts properly. The Election Commission had also challenged anyone who wanted to hack an electronic voting machine to come to the Election Commission office and hack the EVM in front of everyone.

However, no one, including Arvind Kejriwal, who had accused EVMs, took up on this challenge. Rajsaheb Thackeray compared the votes received by the Maha Vikas Aghadi and Mahayuti candidates in the backdrop of the Lok Sabha elections. Mr. Rajsaheb expressed his doubts as to how the votes of the Maha Vikas Aghadi have decreased so much in just 6 months. While expressing this doubt, a person like Rajsaheb, who has spent many years in politics, should have ideally studied the results of the many elections conducted in the country since 1952.

Without such a study and with insufficient information, Rajsaheb has expressed doubts not only about the ‘EVM’ but also about the honesty and efficiency of the government employees. Let me give you one or two examples and show you the fallacy of Rajsaheb’s criticism. In 2009, Congress had won a total of 10 seats in Haryana in the Lok Sabha elections.

Hence, it was naturally expected that Congress would easily get a majority in the assembly elections that were to be held just a few months later.

However, in that assembly election, Congress could not even secure the 46 seats required for a simple majority. Congress got 40 seats, which was much less than the majority needed in that election.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, Congress got about 42 percent of the votes while the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance got 28 percent. The difference in votes between Congress and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was as big as 14 percent. Yet, in the assembly elections, voters thought differently and gave the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance a victory of 35 seats.

That is why no one should doubt the wisdom of Indian voters. In 1984, the Congress had won 42 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra and had a lead in about 225 assembly constituencies. However, in the assembly elections held 4 months later, the alliance of all opposition parties (including Sharad Pawar), i.e. ‘PULOD’, had won 105 seats. While the Congress had won 161 seats. It has often been seen that voters think differently in the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the difference in votes between the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the Mahayuti was only one and a half lakh. There were many reasons why the Mahayuti suffered a blow in the Lok Sabha elections. Rumors like, reservation would be canceled and that Muslims would be deported from the country under the CAA law, had adversely affected the Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha elections. After the Lok Sabha elections, the false propaganda started to diminish.

Common voters also realized the seriousness of vote jihad. The public appeals made by Sajjad Nomani and Ulema Board for the candidates of Uddhav Thackeray, Congress and Sharad Pawar faction polarized the voters.

This resulted in the Mahayuti getting a resounding majority in the assembly elections. A close examination of the statistics of previous elections reveals the subtle nuances. Questions being raised about the credibility of EVMs by talkative leaders of Congress, UBT and Sharad Pawar is different than when questions are raised by a leader like Rajsaheb. And that’s all for now….

 

(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online – 03 February, 2025) 

Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson