Many chinks in armour: Aaditya claims irregularities in voters' list; says will bring data out soon

Mumbai, Sep 25 (PTI) Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday alleged irregularities in electoral rolls during the 2024 Maharashtra assembly polls, saying his party has found "many chinks in the armour" that it would bring to light soon.

The former state minister said he will soon address a press conference similar to the ones held by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to brief about these irregularities.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave, he said just before the assembly polls, the party had written to the Election Commission of India (ECI) about the sudden spike in the number of voters, missing names of voters and mismanagement at the booths.

"Our party has found very many chinks in the armour and it will bring them out very soon," Thackeray said.

"We will have a press conference with the data we are working on right now. We are putting it together," he added.

When asked if he will hold a press conference similar to the one done by Rahul Gandhi, he said, "Absolutely. We are doing it." When asked if the press conference will be held before the civic body polls due later this year, Thackeray said. "Let me not leak it. We cannot let out the timings of the surgical strike." Rahul Gandhi had last week ramped up his attack on the issue of vote theft, and accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who "destroyed democracy".

To buttress his allegation, he cited data from a Karnataka assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted.

The ECI, however, dubbed the allegations as "incorrect and baseless" and said, "No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi." PTI PR NP