Maharashtra Opposition Demand Postponement Of Civic Polls Over Flawed Voter List

Mumbai: The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and its smaller allies on Tuesday demanded that local body elections in Maharashtra be postponed until the voter list — reported to contain lakhs of errors — is thoroughly corrected. A delegation of senior Opposition leaders met with Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Chockalingam to raise concerns about discrepancies in the electoral rolls ahead of the upcoming local body polls. They also flagged other issues, including the use of VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines in these elections.

The delegation included Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat.

The state branch of the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to write to the central ECI, seeking permission to conduct a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of the voter list in Maharashtra before the elections. This move is expected to offer some relief to Opposition parties, giving them an opportunity to raise objections regarding the addition and deletion of names in the electoral rolls, a senior official from the poll body told this newspaper.

During the meeting with the Maharashtra CEO at Mantralaya, the delegation raised several issues — some of which fall outside his jurisdiction and come under the purview of the State Election Commission (SEC), headed by Dinesh Waghmare. While the SEC is responsible for conducting local body elections in the state, the preparation of the electoral roll falls under the jurisdiction of the CEO. However, a few concerns raised are common to both authorities.

In light of this, it has been decided to hold a joint meeting between the SEC chief and the CEO on Wednesday to address all the issues raised by the delegation.

The delegation pointed out that the voter list, which according to them is riddled with errors, was previously used in the Assembly elections and is now proposed to be used for the upcoming local body elections. They urged that the State Election Commission (SEC) must update the electoral roll, correct all discrepancies, and publish a revised list before conducting the elections.

The delegation also highlighted several instances of discrepancies in the voter list, including names of the same voter appearing multiple times, duplicate entries, incorrect addresses, wrong EPIC numbers, and instances where addresses were replaced with zeroes or commas. They urged Mr. Chockalingam to take immediate steps to correct or remove such erroneous entries from the electoral roll.

Election officials advised the delegation to file formal objections against the disputed entries in the voter list. However, the delegation strongly opposed this suggestion, stating, “You prepare a faulty list and then expect us to file lakhs of objections — how is that feasible?”

Raj Thackeray pointed out that voters’ names appeared in multiple places, the lists were riddled with discrepancies, and some entries contained absurd errors such as fathers being listed as younger than their sons. “With such a mess, how can you conduct elections? Also, why has voter registration been halted when no election is currently scheduled? Shouldn’t citizens turning 18 now be allowed to register and vote?” he reportedly asked.

According to the sources, Uddhav Thackeray also demanded the use of VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines in the local body elections to ensure transparency.

In the memorandum submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer, the delegation further demanded that, in the absence of VVPAT machines, elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) should be conducted using ballot papers.