Opposition parties in Maharashtra have launched a fierce attack on the state election commission and the ruling Mahayuti alliance, raising serious questions about the credibility of the recently concluded civic body polls. Leaders from the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (SP) have alleged a combination of electronic voting machine (EVM) manipulation, procedural irregularities, and the overwhelming use of money power to influence the outcomes.
Allegations of Fixing and EVM Tampering
State Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal directly accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the State Election Commission (SEC) of being in cahoots. He stated that while his party accepts the people's verdict, the process itself was deeply flawed. "There was a mess created about the election dates, from voting to counting of votes by the SEC," Sapkal alleged. He also claimed that voter lists were problematic and that "mercenary voters were brought from many parts of Maharashtra."
Echoing similar concerns, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut made a bold claim about EVM tampering. He asserted that the machines used in the civic polls were the same ones that had been "set" during the earlier assembly elections. "If you see Vidhan Sabha numbers of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP, and now in the civic body polls, they are the same. The [fixed] machines that were used during Vidhan Sabha are the same," Raut claimed, suggesting a pre-determined pattern in the results.
The "Hailstorm" of Money Power
Beyond EVMs, opposition leaders highlighted what they called the unprecedented use of financial muscle in local body elections. Sanjay Raut alleged that the BJP and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde spent a staggering Rs 150 crore on municipal elections whose budgets are only around Rs 30 crore. He pointed out the novel use of chartered planes for campaigning in a municipal election as a symbol of this excess.
"So far, no one had used a chartered plane for campaigning in a municipal election. We had left the elections to the workers. But here, the competition was between the three parties in power. Due to this, a huge amount of money was splurged," Raut stated, arguing that clean politics stood no chance against such a "hailstorm" of money.
Questions on the Future of Clean Politics
NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar, who faced a setback in the Jamkhed Nagar panchayat polls, expressed deep disappointment. He stated he had no grievance with the people's mandate but was disheartened by the dominance of money. In a post on social media platform X, he posed a poignant question: "But if money rules everywhere, then when will the group leaders, farmers, shopkeepers, and other such candidates who are neglected from a political perspective and come from ordinary families—whom we were trying to bring into the stream of power—get justice?"
Congress's Sapkal further stoked political speculation by claiming that the BJP would soon work to sideline its own allies, the NCP and Shiv Sena, after using them to win the elections. "BJP is working to swallow the parties with which it has formed an alliance... After the municipal elections, it will first work to eliminate its allies," he warned.
The opposition's unified stance points to a brewing confrontation over electoral integrity in Maharashtra. They have collectively called for greater transparency from the State Election Commission, alleging that its actions have severely damaged public trust in the democratic process, especially in a context of rising inflation, unemployment, and corruption.
