Maharashtra local body polls 2025: Congress leader Nitin Raut urges EC action against Ashish Shelar over ‘appeasement politics’ remark

According to PTI, Raut, who represents the Nagpur North Assembly Constituency, filed a formal complaint with EC, calling Shelar’s remarks “highly objectionable” and “legally impermissible”. He said the statement was intended to “create communal division” and “influence voters along religious lines”.

“Shelar specifically mentioned 8,342 duplicate Muslim voters in North Nagpur, a statement that targets one religious community and promotes hatred and division,” Raut alleged.

According to the complaint, the comments amount to a violation of section 123(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which prohibits appeals to religion, caste, community, or language for electoral gains and section 196 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which criminalises the promotion of enmity between groups based on religion.

Raut also cited provisions of the Model Code of Conduct, which bar parties or candidates from making communal or caste-based appeals, PTI reported.

He urged EC to take immediate cognisance and initiate “stringent action” against Shelar to set a precedent for future conduct.

“Such action is crucial to maintain the sanctity, impartiality, and secular character of Maharashtra’s electoral process,” Raut said.

Elections to 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats across Maharashtra will be held on December 2, with vote counting scheduled for the next day, EC announced earlier on Tuesday.

Maharashtra Congress urges EC to act on alleged voter list irregularities before local body polls

The Congress on Tuesday urged the Election Commission (EC) to immediately address the Opposition’s demand to correct alleged “irregularities” in the voters’ lists ahead of the upcoming Maharashtra local body polls 2025, noting that even leaders from the ruling alliance had raised similar concerns. 

Maharashtra Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant said political parties are an integral part of democracy and that the electoral process remains incomplete without their participation.

“When all Opposition parties are jointly demanding a clean and error-free electoral roll, it is the EC’s duty to act. Now, even ruling party leaders, including the chief minister and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, have said the voters’ list must be cancelled. If the ruling party is saying the same thing, what’s the problem now?” Sawant wrote on X.

(With PTI inputs)