The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena backed Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of “match-fixing” during the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections, in an editorial carried in the Sena’s Marathi daily newspaper ‘Saamna’ on Tuesday.

“When Modi-Shah was in power, they never allowed the Congress to get the post of Leader of Opposition, but this time, the people gave strength to Rahul Gandhi, and he became the Leader of Opposition. Therefore, considering his allegations as mere complaints, the Election Commission should take ‘suo motu’ action. But will Modi-Shah allow it? That is the question,” the ‘Saamna’ edit read.

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“Rahul Gandhi expressed his views on the Maharashtra Assembly elections through democratic means. He wrote articles in many newspapers giving detailed information about how the Election Commission stole the Maharashtra elections. Maharashtra defeated Modi in the Lok Sabha elections. The dream of ‘Ab ki baar char sao paar’ was lost because of Maharashtra’s strong determination. After that, Maharashtra assembly elections were held within six months. However, in this election, Congress, (Sharad Pawar-led) NCP and (Uddhav Thackeray-led) Shiv Sena did not get even 50 seats together. How can such a reversal happen in just six months after the Lok Sabha elections? Rahul Gandhi revealed in his article how all this match-fixing took place in the Maharashtra elections with the help of the Election Commission, how all this is harmful to democracy and how the same ‘match-fixing’ will be implemented in the Bihar Assembly elections,” the ‘Saamna’ editorial stated.

The editorial mentioned that Rahul Gandhi talked about the scams in the voter list and the sudden increase in voters by around 70 lakh, and also voting after 5 pm.

“Rahul Gandhi’s demand is simple. One of his demands is to publish a consolidated digital machine-readable voter list for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections of all states, including Maharashtra, and the other is to make public all the CCTV footage of polling stations in Maharashtra after 5 pm. Instead of directly answering Rahul Gandhi’s questions, the Election Commission has appointed BJP leaders as lawyers. Since Rahul Gandhi wrote an article, Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis tried to answer Rahul Gandhi by writing another article. It is a serious matter for a political party to advocate for the Election Commission. Since the results of the Maharashtra elections were a robbery, Fadnavis, the main beneficiary of this robbery, became possessed and started reciting Urdu poetry,” the editorial stated.

“Rahul Gandhi’s arrows have penetrated the hearts of Fadnavis and others. The Election Commission murdered the Constitution. To gain power in Maharashtra, Amit Shah split Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress. It was approved without considering the 10th schedule of the Anti-Defection Act. All of this is unconstitutional. The Election Commission participated in this organised crime and now it has advised Rahul Gandhi to file a written complaint about his objections. This is a cowardly attempt to clean the mud from its face. The BJP people are cleaning the dirt from the face of the Election Commission. Many complaints have been registered with the Election Commission after the results of the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections,” the ‘Saamna’ editorial read.

However, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s grandson and president of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), Prakash Ambedkar, who is a two-time Lok Sabha MP and a one-term Rajya Sabha MP, accused the Congress on Tuesday of merely paying “lip service” when it comes to alleged election discrepancies and malpractices.

“To be honest, the Congress is just paying lip service to the issues and nothing more. After the Maharashtra elections were announced and the discrepancies in the polled votes were found by VBA, I personally reached out and wrote to the Kharge, on January 16, 2025, to raise the issue since we believed that a united effort would be effective to take this throughout the nation. But we got no response either from Kharge or the Congress party,” Prakash Ambedkar said.

Ambedkar said that he also requested Kharge for a united fight against amendments made to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

“After receiving no reply from the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra to my letter dated December 12, 2024, and no response from Kharge and the Congress party to my letter for a united fight, the VBA decided to take this fight to the court,” Ambedkar further said.

Accordingly, on February 3, 2025, VBA’s representative Chetan Chandrakant Ahire filed a writ petition against the Election Commission of India, which was accepted by the Bombay High Court, Prakash Ambedkar said.

“The writ petition highlighted the discrepancies in the total votes polled and sought answers to the very same questions which I had requested the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra to furnish. I am personally arguing this case. In the first hearing, a notice was sent by the court to the Election Commission of India. The case has been heard twice in the Court. The next hearing is on June 16, 2025,” Ambedkar said.

“Now, the question is, could not the Congress or Rahul Gandhi take this matter to the court? The Congress has a lot of senior lawyers in its ranks, some of who have been and are MPs. Could not the Congress file a case in the court? What has the article written by Rahul Gandhi achieved other than enhancing his own image,” Ambedkar added.

“If the Congress really wanted to fight this very serious issue, the Congress and Rahul Gandhi would have taken this matter to the Court like we did. What stopped the Congress from collaborating with the VBA to fight this matter,” Ambedkar questioned.