Shiv Sena UBT suspects ‘vote stealing’ during VP’s election

Mumbai: Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) on Friday accused the Election Commission of not working “seriously” even in the election for the Constitutional post of Vice President of India.

“The game of vote-stealing is being allowed to happen here, too. If this really has happened, then the election of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh candidate CP Radhakrishnan as Vice President was done through vote stealing, black money, blackmailing and by giving threats,” said Shiv Sena UBT.

Thackeray camp in the party mouthpiece Saamana has strongly suggested that a provision should also be made that no one can stay away from such elections, and the voting is also done openly instead of secret voting.

“There is a demand for compulsory voting, but at the same time, the parties elected to Parliament join in the ‘horse trading’ and boycott the voting by making a deal of neutrality. The recognition of such parties should be cancelled. Radhakrishnan will seriously consider all this. A person shows his true colours when he sits in the chair. The colours of the new Vice President will soon be known,” said the editorial.

Thackeray camp also suggested that after taking the oath, the first thing Radhakrishnan should do for the national interest is to make a law to prevent the ruling party from doing horse-trading in the elections for constitutional posts like the President and Vice-President.

According to the editorial, after Radhakrishnan’s victory, the BJP and its supporters have started beating the drums of what a huge victory this was. NDA already had a majority, and since they had unlimited power and money in their hands, they used it in the Vice Presidential election.

“The candidate of all opposition parties, B Sudarshan Reddy, got 300 votes against their strength of 315 votes. About 15 votes were declared invalid. Most of these votes were cast in favour of Sudarshan Reddy, but the votes were declared invalid on the grounds that there were technical errors. There is a suspicion that at most two to five votes were cast here and there. This has always happened in such big elections. Parties like Biju Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samiti and others, fearing the investigation agencies, adopted the path of neutrality. This is against the Constitution,” claimed the editorial.

Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena, targeted the BJP, alleging that what it does in the Gram Panchayat, Zilla Parishad and Assembly elections, they did in the Vice-Presidential election also.

“Former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar has disappeared since his resignation. Even after the election of the new Vice-President, Dhankanr has not appeared. No one in the NDA is ready to open their mouth on this serious issue. At least the newly appointed Vice-President should shed light on this “invisible” issue. The Vice-Presidential post is a post of constitutional prestige. Therefore, its prestige should be maintained, but the ruling BJP is beating the drums of Radhakrishnan’s victory while making tall claims of engineering splits in the opposition parties. All this is diminishing the dignity of that post,” alleged the Thackeray camp.

Thackeray camp further said that when voting is completely secret, it has become easy to split ‘votes’ in such an important election during the BJP era. “No matter how much the BJP and its allies talk about cross-voting by opposition members, except for two or five people, who seem to have shown dishonesty. The news was spread from BJP circles that those who crossed voted went abroad, and their travel arrangements were made by cronies close to the ruling party. This, too, does not maintain the dignity of the Vice-Presidential election. A person holding a constitutional post should work impartially. The new Vice-President Radhakrishnan has the responsibility to work impartially and maintain the respect of democracy and the Constitution,” said the editorial.

IANS