Mumbai. Opposition parties in Maharashtra on Tuesday said that the Election Commission has announced to complete the assembly election process in 35 days, which is less than the usually given time and while the government was given enough time to announce the plans.
Opposition parties also underlined that the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is the largest in the country after Uttar Pradesh and yet elections are being held in one phase on November 20 whereas the Lok Sabha elections held in the same year were held in five phases in the state. As per the election schedule announced by the Election Commission on Tuesday, counting of votes will take place on November 23.
Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar said, “The Election Commission usually gives 40 days to political parties to decide their candidates, file nominations and campaign. But this time this time is of 35 days which is unusual and this will give us less time for campaigning.” He said, “This could be part of some plan to give less time to the opposition.” The Congress leader alleged that the ‘mahayuti’ government of Shinde-led Shiv Sena, BJP and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party has announced schemes without thinking during the elections which will impact the state exchequer.
Wadettiwar was asked what would be the future of these schemes if the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), an alliance of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP), comes to power. On this he said, “We found that some schemes will put financial burden on the state, but we will not eliminate all of them. We will review and continue those schemes which are actually aimed at helping people. Additionally, our administration will prioritize improving the safety of women in public places.”
NCP (SP) Maharashtra unit president Jayant Patil said, “The Election Commission had conducted Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra in five phases but now it has decided to conduct the assembly elections in one phase. It is good that Maharashtra’s NDA (National Democratic Alliance) will be defeated in one fell swoop.” He claimed that the assembly elections should have been announced earlier, but the state government was given enough time to announce more welfare schemes and approve development works.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said, “MVA, part of the ‘India’ alliance, will perform better than the Lok Sabha. There is no need to worry about the seat sharing formula.” He also claimed that the Election Commission officials have not adequately addressed the questions raised by several opposition parties on the possible misuse of EVMs.