Stepping up its protest against the massive discrepancies in the voters’ lists on the second day, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Wednesday asked the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and the State Election Commissioner (SEC) not to go ahead with the local body elections in Maharashtra till irregularities in the voters’ list are rectified.
A day after they flagged the issue of irregularities in the voters’ lists in the State, Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) met the Maharashtra State Election Commissioner (SEC) Dinesh Waghmare and the ECI Chief Electoral Officer S Chokalingam once again and rooted for the postponement of the local body polls on the ground the existing voters’ lists were “compromised and faulty” and should not be used for the polls.
The MVA delegation that rooted for postponement of the local body polls comprised Congress Working Committee member Balasaheb Thorat, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and MNS founder-President Raj Thackeray and NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil, Rias Shaikh of the Samajwadi Party and Jayant P. Patil of the Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP).
NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar, who was present at Tuesday’s meeting with State election authorities, could not make it to Wednesday’s meeting as he was away in Pune. Accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of failing in its duty — of not sharing accurate and complete voters’ lists with the political parties, the MVA leaders alleged that the voters’ lists were “highly compromised and faulty” and they should not be used for holding local body polls in the State.
“The voters’ lists are highly compromised and faulty. We have requested the State Election authorities not to hold the local body elections till the voters’ lists are corrected,” MVA leaders including Uddhav, Raj Thackeray and Balasaheb Thorat, told the State Election Commissioner and CEO.
Addressing a news conference after the meeting with the State election authorities, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray said: “There are numerous errors in the voters’ lists — wrong names, incorrect ages, and duplicate entries — in the voters’ lists”.
Charging that there were lots of discrepancies and anomalies in the 2024 voters’ lists, MNS president Raj Thackeray said: “The ECI’s job is to conduct free and fair elections – not to hide voter data from political parties. The ECI isn’t even sharing the voters’ list. That goes to prove that the first scam is right there”.
Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said the MVA had brought to the notice of the ECI during the 2024 Assembly polls about the errors in voters’ lists, but the errors have not been rectified
“The State election authorities final voters’ lists on July 1 but there are still massive errors in them. The SEC’s oral assurance that it will correct the lists is not acceptable. There must be direct engagement with both the SEC and ECI to ensure transparency and restore public confidence in the system,” Thorat said.
Citing the examples of anomalies in the 2024 voters’ lists, the MVA delegation said: “In booth no. 8 in Murbad assembly segment of Thane district, a dash was placed instead of the address of 400 voters. In Badnera segment of Amravati, at booth number 218, a numerical zero was written before the home address of 450 voters. In Kamptee assembly segment, 867 voter IDs have been issued without any residential address”
“In Nashik Central assembly constituency, 813 voters were registered at a single house number - 3829, while in Pune Cantonment booth 30, house number 226 had 869 names attached to one address,” the MVA leaders told the election authorities.
“There is one Sushama Gupta whose name appeared in Nallasopara constituency under six different EPIC numbers. After the issue was exposed in the media on August 12, all six entries were deleted by 6 pm the same day. Who ordered this deletion? Who filed the complaint? Which official conducted physical verification and concluded all photos belonged to the same woman?,” NCP leader Jayant Patil asked.
Demanding to know as to why the election authorities have discontinued the use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), Uddhav Thack-eray said: “You don’t use VVPAT. It means you’re destroying all old records. The SEC is not Raja Harishchandra. So stop pretending to be holier than thou”.
The protests by the Opposition MVA leaders have come little over a month after the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) urged the ECI to defer the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State till January 2026.
Citing the local body polls as a reason for the postponement of the SIR process, the SEC wrote to ECI on September 9: “The Supreme Court of India has vide its order dated 6th May 2025 directed the State Election Commission to make an endeavour to conclude the elections to local bodies in Maharashtra within a period of four months while granting liberty to the State Election Commission to seek extension of time in appropriate cases. Elections to all 29 Municipal Corporations, all 247 Municipal Councils, 42 Nagar Panchayats out of 147 Nagar Panchayats, 32 Zilla Parishads out of 34 Zilla Parishads and 336 Panchayat Samitis out of 351 Panchayat Samitis are due in Maharashtra.”
“Tentatively, the process of elections for all these bodies is likely to continue till January 2026 during which time most of the deputy collectors and tahsildars (who are appointed as Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers for local body elections) in the State will be engaged in these elections.”
“As the field staff including deputy collectors and tahsildars are the same officers for local body elections and revision of Assembly electoral roll, it is requested that the programme for Special Intensive Revision, in case any such programme is planned to be undertaken, be deferred till at least the end of January 2026,” the SEC Stated in its letter.
