SHOCKING: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray issues foul and derogatory attack on Election Commission and says BJP is using democracy as its mistress

Taking the recent attacks by the Opposition on the Election Commission of India (ECI) to a whole new level, Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray has hurled insulting and derogatory remarks towards the constitutional authority and cast aspersions on it.

In an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamna, Uddhav Thackeray has written that there is no point in calling India the world's largest democracy anymore as the current Narendra Modi-led BJP government has been treating democracy as their mistress.

He made a direct allegation, saying that the BJP has tampered with the EVMs and is using it for political gain, and hence, the Shiv Sena believes that the Election Commission has become its vassal, among other descriptions that cannot be reproduced here.

He claimed that EVM-related issues in the Palghar and Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha bypolls that were held on Monday proved this.

Uddhav Thackeray also took up the case on behalf of the Opposition in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana where re-polls are in progress at a number of booths due to EVMs malfunctioning. Thackeray said that the EVM scam had also taken place in Kairana.

People cast their vote but they don't know where it's going, the editorial stated, going on to say that the Election Commission is not seeing the corruption and is not hearing the complaints.

He forecast a bleak future for democracy saying that the EVMs that are being used are scrap-worthy.

In the name of democracy, Thackeray wrote, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have made arrangements to be in power for life. The same has been going on in India but it will not work here, he said.

The Shiv Sena is the BJP's oldest ally and the two are in government in Mumbai, Maharashtra and at the Centre. However, for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as well as in the recent bypolls, the Sena has made clear its intention to not go with the BJP.