MLAs of deputy CMs Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar will go over to BJP: Rohit

Mumbai, Oct 16 (PTI) NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar on Thursday claimed that several MLAs of the ruling allies Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra will join the Bharatiya Janata Party before the 2029 elections.

Speaking at a press conference here, he also alleged that the BJP was poaching the MLAs of the NCP led by deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar "one by one".

Shiv Sena's Sanjay Gaikwad had alleged that there were more than one lakh bogus voters in his constituency of Buldhana, and despite his complaints the district collector's office was not updating the electoral rolls, he said.

Elsewhere, Sangram Jagtap of the NCP was toeing the BJP line in his speeches, asking people to buy things for Diwali only from Hindu traders, and was unrepentant even after Ajit Pawar reprimanded him, said Rohit.

"BJP is breaking Ajit Pawar's MLAs one by one," he claimed.

Shinde and Ajit Pawar, both deputy chief ministers in the BJP-led government, will soon feel the need to find ways to stop the "vote theft", Rohit Pawar further said.

After the unfavourable results for the BJP-led Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha elections, there were malpractices such as registration of bogus voters, bulk deletion of genuine voters and double registration of voters, he alleged.

`Unfavourable' voters were shown as dead, and bogus voting took place in the name of dead persons, Pawar claimed.

Between 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 32 lakh voters were added, which amounted to addition of 6.5 lakh voters per year or 54,000 per month. But between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra assembly polls, 48 lakh voters were added in just six months, the NCP (SP) leader said.

In his own Karjat Jamkhed assembly constituency, 14,292 voters were added, 5,360 names were deleted and 14,162 duplicate names were inserted in voter rolls after the Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.

There were instances where the Aadhaar card of a voter in one constituency was used for the registration of another voter in a different constituency with the photo and name changed, the NCP (SP) MLA said. PTI MR KRK