Nagpur: Municipal council and Nagar Panchayat elections have been announced in the state. The State Election Commission announced the election schedule in a press conference on Tuesday. The State Election Commission has announced that the counting of votes for the municipal council and Nagar Panchayat elections will be held on December 3. Against this backdrop, the political atmosphere has heated up due to serious errors in the voter lists. Former Home Minister and leader of the Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar faction Anil Deshmukh has taken a direct aim at the Election Commission. “The Election Commission, which is working under pressure from the BJP, announced the elections ignoring serious errors in the voter lists,” Deshmukh has made a serious allegation.

Deshmukh said, “Two to three days ago, we, all the party leaders, had come together and visited the Election Commission. At that time, we had clearly stated that there were huge errors in the voter lists. We have come to our notice that there are many things like confusion, repetition, omitted names, as well as false entries in the names of lakhs of voters. We had demanded that the Commission first correct these errors, only then hold elections, otherwise there will be no transparent elections and the ruling party will benefit.

Deshmukh further said, “All the party leaders had come together on this issue and taken out a ‘Lakhcha Morcha’. Everyone had the same demand – first clean the voter lists and only then hold elections. But the Commission has taken this decision under pressure from the BJP without taking note of this democratic demand. This is very dangerous for democracy.”

He said, “The Election Commissioner himself has admitted that all the lists have not been completely cleaned. So how will the elections be transparent in such a situation? 120 voter lists have been found in the government residence in Navi Mumbai, and they also voted in the assembly. This is serious. Where there are duplicate voters, they were told to put a ‘double star’, but this is just a show. In reality, duplicate names, false entries and excluded voters have all degraded the quality of the lists.”

Deshmukh further said, “The Commission is not ready to listen to any matter. If the opposition parties had approached the court, the court would have guided them on this, but the Commission has not taken any positive steps in that regard either. If the Commission really wanted to hold transparent elections, it would have extended the deadline for complaints and thoroughly checked all the lists.”

Anil Deshmukh warned that, “If elections are held in this situation, this situation will be dangerous and damaging for the Maha Vikas Aghadi. The next stand will be decided after discussions with all party leaders and legal scholars. However, this insistence of the Election Commission raises a question mark on the democratic process.