Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule launched a strong counteroffensive against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, dismissing his allegations about duplicate names in Maharashtra's voter lists as absurd and politically motivated.
Sharp Rebuttal to Congress Allegations
The minister directly challenged Rahul Gandhi's claims, stating that the Congress leader should first study the state's voter lists properly before making what he called foolish allegations. Duplicate names in voter lists are not a new phenomenon and exist across various constituencies, according to Bawankule.
In a surprising revelation, the minister pointed out that even within the opposition camp, there are instances of duplicate entries. In Kamptee, Congress-MVA candidate Suresh Bhoyar — who contested against me in the 2024 assembly polls — himself has a duplicate entry. Why doesn't Rahul see that? Bawankule questioned during his media interaction in Nagpur.
Defending Election Integrity
The guardian minister firmly rejected Gandhi's charges as a desperate attempt to create confusion ahead of the upcoming civic elections. He explained the existing safeguards in the voting process, emphasizing that even if a name appears twice, only one person can actually vote due to the application of indelible ink.
Bawankule highlighted the inconsistency in the opposition's position by noting that the same voter list elected 31 MPs of the MVA alliance. However, after losing the assembly polls, they are now calling the same list faulty. He described this as a pathetic effort to spread a fake narrative among voters.
Broader Political Criticism
The minister expanded his criticism to accuse Gandhi and the entire opposition of lacking any positive agenda. In the last nine months, they haven't presented a single constructive idea for the state or country's development, he claimed.
Bawankule accused Rahul Gandhi of repeatedly attacking constitutional institutions like the Election Commission and the Supreme Court, playing what he called the same old, worn-out cassette. According to the minister, this restlessness stems from Gandhi's realization that the NDA under Prime Minister Modi will continue to rule until 2047.
Targeting Uddhav Thackeray
The minister didn't spare Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray either, referring to him as a penless chief minister. Drawing from his 22 years of political experience, Bawankule stated that Uddhav Thackeray was the only CM who never carried a pen and would delay signing MLAs' letters for months.
He attributed the desertion of Thackeray's legislators to this administrative approach. The minister also alleged that Thackeray barely visited Mantralaya during his two-and-a-half-year tenure as chief minister.
Bawankule dismissed Thackeray's ongoing Marathwada tour as purely politically driven, calling it an off-season tour motivated by electoral considerations. He claimed that as chief minister, Thackeray never visited farmers' fields or showed concern about flood relief measures.
The minister concluded that Thackeray doesn't even know what assistance victims receive and is touring only to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, according to the official statement released to media.
