A fierce political storm erupted on Tuesday after the Shiv Sena (UBT) launched an all-out attack on the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) for abruptly postponing elections to 24 nagar parishads and 154 wards across 76 other civic bodies to December 20. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party condemned the decision as a “calculated political manoeuvre” engineered to throw the state’s democratic process into chaos.

In a strongly worded editorial in Saamana, the party’s mouthpiece, the Thackeray faction accused the SEC of functioning without clarity, legitimacy, or independence. The editorial claimed that the poll panel had “proved its mind is not in the right place” and argued that the sudden deferment of elections raised serious questions about whether the Commission was acting freely or under pressure.

The Saamana editorial went further, calling the SEC a “joker placed on the board by the ruling BJP,” and alleging that the state government had reduced the constitutional body to a mere political instrument. The Thackeray camp asserted that the postponement was not just mismanagement but a “methodically executed mess,” the purpose of which was to tilt electoral advantage towards the BJP.

The editorial also reignited the ongoing debate around what the party calls the “Lakshmidarshan culture,” alleging that massive sums of money were being used by ruling alliance partners to influence voters. It claimed that the current local body elections had become the “most corrupt and exorbitant” in the last four decades, with candidates allegedly competing to outspend each other in buying voter loyalty.

Shiv Sena (UBT) argued that the delay would only inflate campaign expenses further, forcing candidates to spend even more money to keep up with voter expectations. “The state is already burdened with debt exceeding ₹8 lakh crore, yet the ruling leaders are touring and making promises that the government treasury cannot sustain,” the editorial said, accusing the administration of relying on “private treasuries of those in power” rather than public funds.

The Thackeray camp also questioned whether the SEC acted independently, asking whether such a drastic postponement could have been carried out without the Chief Minister’s knowledge or approval. It also sought clarity on the role of the Urban Development Department, which oversees nagar parishads, in the last-minute deferment.