Satara, Maharashtra (November 14, 2024): Goa Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant’s bag was searched by Election Commission officials at Karad airport in Maharashtra’s Satara district on Thursday during his campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's bag and helicopter were checked during his campaign on Wednesday.
The BJP and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar also shared videos showing their leaders undergoing bag checks by election officials
Read Also | Uddhav Thackeray Frustrated by Consecutive Inspections; Raises Questions on Selective Checks
The bags of Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Ministers, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, were also checked.
The issue gained attention after Uddhav Thackeray expressed frustration over the repeated checks of his bags and asked whether the ECI officials checked the bags of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar.
Supriya Sule, leader of the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, condemned the checks, calling it "dirty politics." She claimed Thackeray’s bags were checked twice, while leaders in power were not subject to similar scrutiny. "How is it possible that only opposition leaders' bags are checked?" Sule said on Tuesday. "No checking of the leaders in power is done. Such dirty politics is being done in Maharashtra."
However, sources in the Election Commission clarified that enforcement agencies are strictly following standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure a level playing field, ANI reported. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said these checks, including those on helicopters, are part of efforts to prevent misuse of power and ensure fairness and transparency during the election process.
Voting for the Maharashtra Assembly elections is scheduled for November 20 and results to be announced on November 23.