Stop being ‘Maharashtra’s Pappu’: Fadnavis tells Aaditya Thackeray after vote theft allegations

Responding to Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s MLA Aaditya Thackeray’s allegations of serious voters’ list discrepancies in the Worli Assembly constituency, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Tuesday took a swipe at him, saying he must stop trying to become ”Maharashtra’s Pappu”.

The term “pappu” had been used by the BJP extensively in the past to make fun of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

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‘I know Aaditya and I didn’t expect him to indulge in ‘pappugiri’. His presentation was a replica of what Rahul Gandhi did earlier. He (Aaditya) shouldn’t try to become Maharashtra’s Pappu. All that the opposition is doing is cover firing. They know their defeat is imminent during the local civic body elections in Maharashtra and that the people are not with them. Their conduct is a mockery of democracy,” Fadnavis told media persons after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Earlier, Aaditya Thackeray alleged serious discrepancies in voters’ list in the Worli assembly constituency in Mumbai which he represents and pointed out mismatches of names, photographs, addresses and even gender of voters.

His allegations comes a couple of days before the November 1 march and rally in Mumbai which is expected to see large participation by Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) opposition parties, including the Congress, Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Raj Thackeray-led MNS, CPI, CPI(M) and Peasants & Workers Party.

“This is not merely an error but a fraud,” Aaditya Thackeray alleged while addressing his party workers here.

He said that “the battle will begin when parties get the draft electoral rolls”, and directed party workers to thoroughly study voters’ list in each ward before elections are held to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), as part of the local civic body elections all across the state of Maharashtra, scheduled to be completed by January 2026.

In his presentation, Aaditya Thackeray claimed to have detected 19,333 voter anomalies in a post-election study and he stated that opposition parties had constantly been alleging that elections in India have not been held in a free and fair manner by the Election Commission of India.

“The Election Commission has allowed mass rigging in elections by simply not performing its duty to purify voter lists. We exposed voter fraud in Worli, where we’ve found 19,333 voter anomalies in our post-election study. If this is the case in my constituency, imagine the vote fraud being done by those in the present government, all across Maharashtra,” he said, urging party office bearers to scrutinise voter lists in detail, identify anomalies and raise objections.

“The Election Commission, which has not conducted free and fair elections in India to benefit the BJP, has to be made to follow rules to ensure that democracy is revived,” Aaditya Thackeray said.

The Shiv Sena Worli MLA said that the forthcoming elections to local civic bodies in Maharashtra will be challenging. “Once draft electoral rolls are published, we have to ensure that the voters’ list is clean. If they are correct, genuine voters will elect genuine representatives,” Aaditya Thackeray said.