Thursday, the State Election Commission (SEC) of Maharashtra commissioned a comprehensive investigation into the allegations that there was the use of erasable electoral ink in the current civic polls in response to the allegations by Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. The scandal was met with intense political wrangling, the SEC also warning off the effort of misleading the electorate or unnecessarily confusing them.
Uddhav Thackeray accused State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare of playing to the favour of the ruling BJP-led alliance and claimed that the integrity of the polling was being undermined. Describing the situation as something serious, Thackeray insisted on the suspension of Waghmare and alleged that free and fair election could be compromised by the use of erasable ink.
In response to the claims, Waghmare said that the commission had noticed the complaints and commissioned an immediate investigation. Nonetheless, he evenly dismissed suggestions that the ink applied on the fingers of the voters could be washed off with substances like acetone or nail polish. He claimed such claims were false and he would take legal action against any individual who sought to interfere with the ink or write false reports.
To shed some light on the issue, SEC said that the currently used indelible ink has been in constant use since 2011. The markers themselves, tax officials provide, are of the same manufacturer and an identical ink make-up that passes the same approval of election officials. According to the commission, though it might require the ink approximately 10-12 seconds to dry after a paint is applied, once dry it cannot be wiped or erased.
The SEC once again added that they were committed to transparency and credibility in the electoral process and they had called upon political parties and electorate to use only verified information. The probe results are awaited since the matter has kept on creating political discourse throughout the civic polls.
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