Maharashtra civic polls: 'Washable' ink row mars elections to 29 bodies

Mumbai: Voting in 29 civic bodies across Maharashtra, including Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations, took place on Thursday, amid allegations by the Opposition Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance and the Congress that the mark left by the marker pens used on the voters' index fingers could be washed off easily. The results will be announced on Friday.

Both parties claimed that since the ink could be easily washed off, this would help people cast their votes several times over.

Uddhav Thackeray called an impromptu press conference to slam the State Election Commission (SEC) over the issue, and claimed that the SEC and its officials were working at the behest of the BJP.


"The Election Commission should be scrapped. Why are they taking salaries if they can't conduct elections properly? This has never happened before...that the ink was washed off so easily after the vote was cast. This is not the ink being washed off but democracy being washed away," claimed Uddhav Thackeray as he questioned why voters' fingers were being inked with marker pens.

The State Election Commission (SEC) countered these claims stating that the Opposition was trying to cause 'confusion' as it was the same ink used since the 2011elections.

"The marker pens were not introduced in the current polls but have been used since 2011. The ink in the marker pens is the same that has been stipulated by the Election Commission. It has silver nitrate in them. We have used the ink on our own fingers and it cannot be easily wiped off," said Dinesh Waghmare, State Election Commissioner.

Prior to the civic polls, the Opposition, especially UBT Sena and MNS had claimed that there were several voters whose names were listed as voters in several places and expressed fears that these voters would vote in different constituencies to help the ruling party.

Waghmare said: "Voters have to show two identifications to identify themselves. We will take action against the presiding officer of the booth if a voter whose name figures several times votes more than once."

BJP minister Ashish Shelar alleged that Uddhav Thackeray's allegations was a ham-handed attempt to campaign for his party while the polling was on. "First, they claimed that there is something wrong with the EVMs, then they claimed there is something wrong with the voters' list, then they levelled allegations on the campaigning rules and now they are talking about the ink. Their minds are muddled," said Shelar.

He said the Thackeray cousins were playing spoilsport as they knew that they would lose the BMC polls. "Of the 227 wards, the Thackeray cousins would lose their deposits in at least 50 wards."

He exhorted the SEC to file cases against those spreading misinformation of the ink being washed away easily.