By Anant Nalawade
Mumbai: “Rahul Gandhi’s allegations are nothing but sheer madness. He should first study Maharashtra’s voters’ lists before making baseless claims. Duplicate names are not a new phenomenon—they exist across the state. Even Suresh Bhoyar, the Congress-MVA candidate who contested against me in Kamthi, has his name listed twice. Doesn’t Rahul Gandhi see that?” Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said while addressing the media here on Thursday, responding to Gandhi’s allegations of irregularities in the electoral rolls.
Bawankule further argued, “Even if a name appears twice, a person can vote only once because indelible ink is applied after voting. The same voters’ list was used when 31 MVA MPs won—how can it suddenly become ‘flawed’ after their defeat in the Assembly elections? This is a desperate attempt to spread a fake narrative merely because they can foresee their loss in the upcoming municipal polls.”
Taking a swipe at the former Chief Minister, Bawankule remarked, “In my 22-year political career, I have seen many Chief Ministers, but Uddhav Thackeray was the only one without a pen in his pocket. He wouldn’t sign even on legislators’ recommendation letters for months, which is precisely why his own MLAs deserted him. During his two-and-a-half-year tenure, he barely spent two-and-a-half days in Mantralaya.”
