Sixty-eight candidates of Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti coalition were elected unopposed in the municipal elections on Friday, nearly two weeks before polling takes place, India Today reported.
The wins became clear after the deadline to withdraw nominations ended on Friday. Several candidates of the Opposition alliance had withdrawn their nominations.
Of the 68 candidates who won unopposed, 44 belong to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The largest share of them were in Thane district’s Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation. Some of the party’s candidates also won in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Panvel, Bhiwandi, Dhule, Jalgaon and Ahilyanagar.
The BJP’s ally, the Shiv Sena faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, won 22 seats unopposed. The remaining two were won by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party group, India Today reported.
The wins themselves were not enough for the ruling alliance to clinch control of any municipal corporation.
The polling in 29 municipal corporations in the state will take place on January 15. The votes will be counted on January 16.
The Opposition said that democracy was being undermined through “threats” of central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate or by allegedly bribing the Opposition candidates.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi alleged that the BJP-led alliance was “trying to buy out their victories”, ANI reported.
“The unopposed way of ending democracy where they settle with the Opposition candidate, either by scaring him with the threats of ED, CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] or by bribing him,” the news agency quoted the Rajya Sabha MP as saying.
State poll panel asks for report
On Friday, the Maharashtra State Election Commission sought reports from the municipal corporations where candidates had been elected unopposed, PTI reported. This came amid the Opposition’s allegations of irregularities in the filing of the poll nominations.
The poll panel will check whether the candidates who had withdrawn their nomination had been pressured, bribed or if coercive means were used, PTI quoted officials as having said.
The State Election Commission will not allow the returning officers to formally announce the unopposed election of candidates before the reports are submitted, the Hindustan Times reported.
The poll panel’s action is procedural, ANI quoted an unidentified official as saying.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Rekha Redkar filed a complaint with the poll panel alleging that the returning officer in a ward in the Kalyan-Dombivli municipal corporation had not allowed her to file her nomination on the final day, the Hindustan Times reported.
“The poll machinery is biased,” the newspaper quoted her as having alleged. “They allowed BJP candidates to submit the documents, including affidavits, even after the deadline of 3 pm whereas I was not even given a token despite reaching well before the deadline. I have asked for the CCTV footage of all the wards to prove my point of bias.”
PTI quoted BJP leader and Union minister Murlidhar Mohol as having described the unopposed wins as a reflection of the party’s governance record.
Allegations against Assembly speaker
The State Election Commission also sought a report from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner after allegations that Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar had pressured the returning officer to prevent Opposition candidates from filing nominations, PTI reported.
On Friday, the Congress had sought action against Narwekar for an alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct after a video widely shared on social media showed the speaker threatening Opposition candidates, The Hindu reported.
The code is a set of guidelines issued by the polls panel for political parties, candidates and governments to follow during an election. It sets guardrails for speeches, meetings, processions and other aspects of the polls.
Narwekar said that the allegations were baseless.
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