Raj Thackeray asks EC to snatch voting ‘rights’ of Mumbai's homeless

With an eye on the upcoming civic polls, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray met state election commissioner Debashish Chakraborty on Friday and demanded that people living on the streets must not to be allowed to vote.

Thackeray asked the election commission to stop registering homeless people in the voter list and remove the names of those who have already registered.

“I know that every citizen of the country has the right to vote. However, because of the new rules, homeless people without an address proof have been registered as voters. At a time when a large number of Bangladeshis have infiltrated into Mumbai, this becomes a serious security threat,” said Thackeray.

The MNS chief said because they have been provided with voter cards, Bangladeshis are living on footpaths and are becoming a nuisance in Mumbai. Thackeray said giving voting rights to them will increase the number of bogus voters.

MNS activists said they found several cases of people on the voter list not living at the addresses mentioned. The list has been handed over to Chakraborty. He said he will look into the matter.