Uddhav calls CEC Gyanesh Kumar ‘BJP’s weapon’ as Thackeray cousins lead Mumbai protest

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was the "weapon" of the ruling BJP, while MNS leader Raj Thackeray demanded cancellation of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Maharashtra.

The Thackeray cousins led a protest march in Mumbai against the CEC, which culminated in a rally.

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The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief demanded that future polls in the country should be conducted through paper ballot.

He also demanded cancellation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra.

If the SIR was conducted to weed out Bangladeshis from the voters' list, then how many Bangladeshis residing illegally in the country did the government find? Uddhav Thackeray asked.

"Gyanesh Kumar is a weapon of the BJP," he alleged.

State leaders of Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) also participated in the morcha, which began from the Metro Cinema and traversed the short distance to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in south Mumbai.

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Participants of the morcha, dubbed the Virat Garjana Morcha (Grand Roar March), demanded the removal/resignation of the CEC over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Party flags were not allowed in the march. The participants and supporters were asked to carry only the national tricolour.

The morcha comes two days after the Cockroach Janta Party held a Jail Bharo Andolan' against the Chief Election Commissioner, at Mumbai's Shivaji Park.