The Sharad Pawar camp lodged a formal complaint with the Election Commission against the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena on Saturday, accusing them of breaching the Representation of the People Act and election code. The complaint pertains to the inclusion of names from other parties in their star campaigners' lists.
NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), part of the Maharashtra opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) along with Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress, voiced concerns over what they termed as "gross violations." They took to their official social media handle X (formerly Twitter) to announce the complaint submission to the Election Commission of India.
“We have filed a complaint to the Election Commission of India regarding the gross violations by Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and the Bharatiya Janata Party of the Representation of People’s Act and the Model Code of Conduct. Both Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and Bharatiya Janata Party have published the names of various individuals from other political parties as part of their Star Campaigner List, which is violative of Section 77 of Representation of People’s Act,” the Sharad Pawar-led party posted on its official handle X.
“Further, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) has published the names of various people in their capacity of holding high public office such as the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Central Ministers, Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister etc. This is not only a violation of Representation of People’s Act, but also the Model Code of Conduct as the representatives of the party in power in Centre or State are categorically barred from using their official positions for the purpose of election Campaign. We hope that the Election Commission of India will take the strictest actions in the interest of protecting the sanctity of free and fair elections in our Country.” It said.
The party called for decisive measures by the ECI to safeguard the integrity of democratic elections.