Mumbai- Shiv Sena(UBT) on Monday raised questions over the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI) against the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi’s vote theft and poll rigging allegations, and sought a thorough probe. The Uddhav Thackeray camp in its mouthpiece 'Saamana' claimed that the ECI has been working under the BJP’s influence. "BJP has come to power at the Centre and in Maharashtra through a poll scam and cheating of voters," it said. The editorial raised doubts over the poll body’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) being conducted in Bihar ahead of the upcoming state Assembly elections. "Rahul Gandhi has exposed the lies of the ECI by putting forward all the facts of vote theft through a press conference. ECI should hold a thorough probe into the charges made by Rahul Gandhi instead of asking him to file an affidavit," it said.

"The BJP has forgotten that the ECI is a constitutional body, but it has become the job of the poll body to deceive the gullible people," the editorial mentioned. The Thackeray camp has warned that if these gullible people take to the streets to express their anger, it will not be good for the poll body. "The people will protest against the ECI in front of India Gate, and the time should not lead to such a situation. The Election Commission of India has become a BJP-funded, free spectacle. Looking at the functioning of the current Chief Election Commissioner and his sycophancy towards the BJP, it must be said that the Election Commissioners before him were better. The current Chief Election Commissioner has worked with Amit Shah earlier in the Home Department and later in the Ministry of Cooperation, and it was Shah who got him appointed in the poll body. So what else can the present CEC do other than sycophancy towards HM Amit Shah?” asked the editorial.

Saamana said that Rahul Gandhi proved with evidence that the Election Commission and the BJP had stolen votes by forming an 'alliance'. "Gandhi told in a bold manner how this theft was planned, what tricks were used and how the ECI was involved in this vote-stealing case. This has ripped apart the mask of Indian democracy and the current electoral system. Any sensible Election Commissioner would have resigned on the issue of ethics and apologised to the people of India," it said. “BJP came to power and Narendra Modi could become Prime Minister again only because of the massive vote rigging in at least 50 Lok Sabha constituencies. There are 25 constituencies where the anti-BJP candidates were leading till the last round. There, the counting was stopped, and manipulations were done, and finally, the BJP candidates were declared winners. It is clear that votes and victory were stolen in this way in 50-55 constituencies. Rahul Gandhi exposed all this. All these scams need to be investigated, but the ECI is not considering any probe. On the contrary, Rahul Gandhi is being asked to give an affidavit. This is an imprudent counterargument by the poll body,” said the editorial.

Extending support to Rahul Gandhi, the Thackeray camp said, "He is the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and has taken oath in Parliament as per the Constitution. So the ECI should trust his words. On the contrary, ECI is insisting that Rahul Gandhi give an affidavit on oath, and not conduct an impartial investigation into his allegations. The poll body is thereby justifying the vote theft by the BJP. The constitutional institutions of the country are being destroyed." “What does it mean that the ECI destroyed the electronic data of the scam that took place in more than 25 seats won by the BJP with a margin of 35,000 votes or less? The same thing was done in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. A large number of bogus votes were cast. There were a few thousand votes in which 'Form 6' was clearly misused. 'Form 6' is for new voters, but there are thousands of voters who are 60, 70 and 80 years old. These duplicate voters first voted in Karnataka. Then they voted in Maharashtra and also voted in Uttar Pradesh. In Bihar, with great fanfare and the pretence of 'transparency', the poll body conducted SIR and released a voter list there. However, new scams and frauds are now coming to the fore. The BJP is playing tricks on Indian democracy by controlling the poll body,” alleged the Thackeray camp.

"Rahul Gandhi has presented the vote theft with evidence, and crores of voters of the country were convinced that the BJP has won the election by stealing votes. Voters felt that 'they have been cheated and duped'. BJP's victory in the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly was not celebrated anywhere. This is the reason why people did not celebrate. Because the victory of the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena was not real. People are still not able to believe that the BJP has won. Even if one gives credit for the victory in Maharashtra to schemes like Ladki Bahin Yojana and other populist schemes by the BJP-Shiv Sena, still, such a big victory was not possible, said the editorial. (IANS)