Maharashtra state president of the Samajwadi Party, Abu Asim Azmi, attacked the sudden and unexpected move to declare local civic body election constituencies as “reserved” just before the polls, without any prior consultations or indications on Wednesday, hinting at a not-so-hidden agenda to favour the BJP at the expense of the opposition.
Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, Azmi said, “All of a sudden, they have announced several constituencies where the opposition is strong as ‘reserved’ constituencies. The Samajwadi Party intends to challenge this arbitrary move and write to the Election Commission or even approach the Supreme Court. Nothing like this was done even during the Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra assembly elections. So we don’t understand the reason for this sudden move to arbitrarily declare constituencies where the opposition is strong as ‘reserved’ constituencies”.
Significantly, more than 53 per cent of Maharashtra’s zilla parishads, or district councils, appear to have breached the 50 per cent ceiling on seat reservation mandated by the Supreme Court, according to data finalised by district collectors. More than 22 per cent of panchayat samitis, the taluka-level rural bodies, also have more than half of their seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
The breach of the cap on reserved constituencies is expected to be challenged in court. As a matter of fact, the Bombay High Court is already hearing a bunch of petitions concerning rotational reservation, ward formation and other pre-poll matters, which are expected to come up for hearing shortly.
Azmi also said that the Samajwadi Party would contest local civic body elections throughout Maharashtra, but has decided not to ally with any party due to betrayals in the past. “We intend to put up our candidates all across Maharashtra. We will field candidates in approximately 150 seats out of 227 BMC seats. We are a secular party, and we are against any split in secular votes. However, the Congress wishes to marginalise our party, and our attempts to ally with the Congress were thwarted by the Congress itself in the past by changing previous alliance decisions at the last minute. Hence, the Samajwadi Party has decided against allying with the MVA or any other group”.
Azmi said that the decision to contest the elections alone was taken after consultation with the Samajwadi Party leadership. He also alleged that despite the Congress projecting itself as a secular and minority-friendly party, it does nothing for minorities and suffers from arrogance and a lack of good leadership.
Azmi’s attack on the Congress included accusations of double standards and failure to support minority communities. He emphasised the Samajwadi Party’s commitment to communal harmony and declared the party’s firm stance against forming electoral alliances with Congress or Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) members in both Maharashtra and Mumbai BMC elections.
The Samajwadi Party’s decision to contest Maharashtra’s local civic body elections alone is a setback to the Congress-led MVA, consisting of Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-Shiv Sena, and Sharad Pawar-led NCP, especially after BJP leader and Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule confirmed that the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, will contest the BMC elections together, aiming to get a two-thirds majority with a 51 per cent vote share.
Azmi attacked the Election Commission of India for its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters’ lists, and he gave specific examples where names of citizens who voted during the Lok Sabha elections were removed from the voters’ list after SIR.
When asked about whether he agrees with the “vote chori” allegations made by the Congress, Azmi said that he fully agrees that votes are being stolen and electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being manipulated.
“All opposition parties, including the Congress and Samajwadi Party, will have to discuss and arrive at a strategy to stop all election malpractices,” Azmi said.