Maharashtra polls: Uddhav Thackeray claims his bags checked before rally

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday alleged that government officials checked his bags when he arrived in Yavatmal district for campaigning.

Addressing a rally at Wani for party candidate Sanjay Derkar, Thackeray talked about this incident. He asked whether the election authorities would inspect Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders’ bags the same way.

The former chief minister claimed that upon his arrival in Wani by a helicopter, several government authorities checked his bag. Thackeray then asked Sena UBT workers and the voters to inspect and identity cards and pockets of the officials who check them, news agency PTI reported.

Clarifying that he was not upset with the election authorities over this incident, Thackeray said, “You are following your responsibility and I will perform my responsibility”.

But, he posed a question to the authorities and asked, “The way you inspected my bag, did you inspect bags of Modi and Shah?” He further pondered over whether bags of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputies, Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis, be also checked.

“All these useless things are going on, I don’t consider it as democratic, this can’t be a democracy. In a democracy, no one is big or small,” Thackeray said.

If the bags of the senior leaders of the ruling alliance (Mahayuti) are not checked by the election authorities, he said, workers of Shiv Sena (UBT) and its allies in the opposition grouping (Maha Vikas Aghadhi) will inspect them.

“In that case, police and the Election Commission should not intervene because voters also have the right to check the bags of the senior leaders (from the ruling alliance) when they arrive for campaigning,” Thackeray added.

CM Shinde’s bag checked in May

Earlier in May, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Eknath Shinde had arrived in Nashik to campaign for the incumbent MP from the constituency, Hemant Godse.

At the time, election officials had searched his luggage right after his arrival at a helipad in Nashik. The search was reportedly prompted by allegations levelled by Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, who had claimed that the chief minister was transporting bags of cash in the helicopter.

However, after inspection, no objectionable items were found in the CM’s bags. “I carry this much luggage. It contains my clothes. I have brought bags even today,” Shinde was heard telling reporters.

The 288-member Assembly of Maharashtra is set to go polls in a single phase on November 20, with counting of votes scheduled to take place on November 23. Both the ruling and opposing alliance, Mahayuti and MVA, are at logger heads as campaigning in the state is underway in full swing.