BJP engineering unopposed wins in Maharashtra civic polls, says Shiv Sena UBT's Saamana

Shiv Sena UBT supremo Uddhav Thackeray.

An editorial in Saamana, Shiv Sena UBT’s mouthpiece, has accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of orchestrating a large-scale “unopposed election scam” in Maharashtra’s local body polls.

Saamna added that the distortions were brought about using “puppeteers” like Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as a metaphor for those working behind the scenes to fix outcomes.

The publication also claimed that a web of uncontested victories, first alleged in the context of Delhi and Bihar, is now being replicated across districts and talukas in Maharashtra, raising questions about the state of democracy and the Constitution.

In the hard-hitting piece, the party mouthpiece claimed repeated reliance on threats, money and administrative misuse to engineer unopposed wins, shows a fear of genuine electoral competition that is causing the “visible collapse” of all pillars of democracy.

“If such trends continue in a politically significant state like Maharashtra, the moral authority of the Constitution and the credibility of elections will be gravely damaged, even as the BJP publicly projects the local body polls as a prestige battle to demonstrate its dominance,” it warns.

The editorial alleges that in Jamner, Congress and NCP (Sharad Pawar) candidates who had filed nominations against Sadhna Mahajan were pressured to back out. In Dondaicha, it claims the opposition candidate’s nomination against Naynkunwar Rawal was “mysteriously rejected,” leading to 26 candidates being elected unopposed.

The piece also alleges that former MLA Rajan Patil ensured that 17 councillors were elected unopposed in Anagar in Solapur district.

Couple of days ago, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s mouthpiece Saamana took a dig at the Congress and accused the party of trying to “show itself as a national party". The publication made this remark days after the Congress party announced its decision to go solo in the upcoming Mumbai Municipal Corporation election.