Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday led a protest march in Mumbai against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar , demanding his resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The Thackeray cousins began a march — dubbed the Virat Garjana Morcha (Grand Roar March) — from the Metro Cinema and traversed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in south Mumbai, with leaders of Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) also joining them. “I have been saying since 2017-18 that there is something wrong here.
The number of votes cannot suddenly decrease,” he said, referring to the deletion of voters after the SIR.
The draft roll currently has more than 7.71 crore voters (78.86 per cent of the previous electorate), comprising 3.95 crore men, 3.75 crore women, and 3,087 third-gender voters, according to the data released in August.
“Our anger is about how this government is being run and through what means it is being run. The Election Commission will not decide who should be in power the people will decide,” he added. The morcha comes two days after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the Gen-Z youth protest movement whose sit-in at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against the NEET paper leak led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in July, held a ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ against the Chief Election Commissioner at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park. Come together to save the democracy of this country and the Constitution of this nation!”
Uddhav Thackeray said that Kumar has “snatched away” the voting rights.
Earlier reporting noted: The statement framed the upcoming agitation as a decisive battle to safeguard the nation’s democratic framework and institutional integrity. Earlier reporting noted: The statement concluded with a direct appeal to the public to “participate in this rally in large numbers.
