“90% of Mahayuti MLAs won by rigging,” Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut endorses “vote theft” claims
(source : ANI) ( Photo Credit : ani)
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut doubled down on serious vote theft claims against the BJP on Saturday, echoing Rahul Gandhi’s recent accusations. Raut told reporters in Mumbai that about 90% of Maharashtra’s Mahayuti MLAs—those from Eknath Shinde’s faction, Ajit Pawar’s group, and the BJP—won their seats through rigged votes or what he called “vote chori.”
This comes just two days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spotlighted alleged fraud in Karnataka’s Aland assembly constituency, where he says around 6,000 votes vanished. Gandhi has long raised alarms about election rigging in India, including an earlier claim this year that the Election Commission deleted about 100,000 names from Bengaluru Central’s Lok Sabha voter list to boost the BJP.
“Such people have been elected in Maharashtra that even locals don’t know they’re MLAs,” Raut said. “They got there because of vote stealing. Ninety MLAs from Shinde, Pawar, or BJP became lawmakers by rigging votes.”
Gandhi ramped up his criticism during a Thursday press conference in New Delhi, targeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. He accused the CEC of shielding those who undermine Indian democracy. “I’m going to show the youth and people black-and-white proof that the Chief Election Commissioner is protecting folks destroying our democracy,” Gandhi said at Congress headquarters. “I’ll reveal how votes get added or deleted, step by step.”
Gandhi pointed to a pattern across Indian elections, where he claims a group systematically targets voters from opposition-supporting communities like Dalits, OBCs, Adivasis, and minorities. “We’ve heard these stories before, but now we have 100% proof,” he added. “I love my country, its Constitution, and democracy—I’m fighting to protect it with solid evidence.”
He zeroed in on the Aland case in Karnataka, alleging fraudsters used software to impersonate real voters and delete 6,018 votes ahead of the 2023 polls. “We don’t know the full scale of deletions nationwide, but this got caught by sheer luck,” Gandhi explained. A booth-level officer spotted the issue when her uncle’s vote disappeared—turns out, a neighbor had fraudulently marked it as deleted.
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