Maharashtra Elections 2024: Sanjay Raut Questions EC's Search of Uddhav's Bag in Maharashtra

A political controversy has erupted in Maharashtra following a routine baggage check of Uddhav Thackeray ahead of a poll rally for the 2024 Maharashtra elections. This led to a war of words between the two factions of the Shiv Sena as the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena-UBT camp objected to the impunity of the move saying whether the leaders of the ruling party, that is to say, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis were also subjected to the same check.

Maharashtra Elections 2024: Raut Slams EC

The Uddhav faction was outraged at what it described as a selective check. Sanjay Raut, the senior Shiv Sena-UBT leader, accused that EC was being discriminatory in action since the belongings of opposition leaders were searched while it was opaque with ruling party leaders. Sanjay Raut cited that during Lok Sabha elections, there was talk that money was being transported in bulk via helicopters and cars; such practices were overlooked when it was linked to Shinde, Fadnavis, and the rest. Raut also referred to the incident in Odisha during the Lok Sabha polls, in which PM Modi's helicopter was not scanned, and the person who did that was suspended. He asked, "Does PM Modi not come under the jurisdiction of the Election Commission?"

However, the Shinde camp retorted, pointing out that the bag of Eknath Shinde too was checked when he contested the Lok Sabha elections and nothing amiss about it, as these checks happened to be regular routine checks. According to them, the job of the EC is to make an election fair and transparent, and if these checks were being done impartially, then what was wrong with the process?.

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The Election Commission responded by clarifying that checks on leaders' belongings, including the top leaders, became part of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure a level-playing field. It clarified that such checks were also done for prominent leaders, such as BJP's Nadda and Shah, during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.