Don't hold local polls till 'faulty' voter rolls rectified: Opposition; Bid to set narrative, says Fadnavis

Mumbai, Oct 15 (PTI) Opposition leaders in Maharashtra on Wednesday demanded that local body polls not be conducted until the electoral rolls are fully rectified, claiming that "highly compromised and manipulated" voters’ lists would undermine democratic integrity.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray, NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil, and Congress's Balasaheb Thorat met State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare and Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam to raise concerns over alleged irregularities in the voters' lists.

NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, who joined the opposition delegation on Tuesday to meet Chockalingam, didn't join the leaders on Wednesday. Addressing a joint press conference after meeting top election officials, Opposition leaders alleged the ruling parties were trying to normalise irregularities related to voters' lists.

Reacting to the charge, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis termed the MVA as a “confused alliance”.

Fadnavis said the opposition was attempting to create a narrative ahead of elections by meeting officials of the poll body. He termed the interactions a fiasco.

Uddhav Thackeray demanded that the poll body either hold fair elections or just select some candidates and finish the procedure.

"Officials cited the Supreme Court to justify proceeding with polls, but nowhere has the court said elections must be held with a faulty voter list," he added.

Uddhav claimed the Maha Vikas Aghadi had written to the EC on October 19, 2024, a month before the assembly elections, and named BJP workers for interfering with voter rolls.

"Except the BJP, all major parties have raised concerns. We submitted the same proofs again today," he said, adding that the refusal to use VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) in Mumbai civic body polls and secrecy around CCTV footage raised further doubts.

"They said duplicates existed earlier also. That is exactly why we want a transparent system. If the government admits that there were irregularities even earlier, then corrective action is overdue," he said.

The local body polls are likely to be held in the next two months or early next year.

The presser was rich in symbolism. Raj Thackeray was seated between Congress leaders Thorat and Vijay Wadettiwar amid reports that the Congress was averse to the MNS’s induction in the opposition bloc, given its aggressive agitations against north Indian migrants. "The EC refuses to show electoral rolls to even contesting candidates. Civic elections have been pending for over five years. Waiting for six more months to clean the voters' list will not destabilise democracy," the MNS chief said.

"We are not seeking cancellation of elections, but correction of voter lists. Democracy cannot run on manipulated rolls...Parties could not be expected to contest elections under such circumstances," he added.

Jayant Patil said the lists were riddled with anomalies.

"Incomplete and misleading addresses on the EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Cards) and in the electoral rolls shared with political parties indicated a serious breach of due process," he said.

"The voters' lists are highly compromised and faulty. In many cases, the given addresses were either wrong or the voters no longer lived there. We showed specific examples to the CEO and the SEC,” he added.

Patil claimed 400 voters have just a dash instead of a residential address in Murbad (Thane). In Badnera (Amravati), 450 voters have a zero before their address. In Kamptee (Nagpur), 867 names have no address at all. Such systematic errors point to manipulation, not clerical oversight, he said.

He claimed multiple entries of the same voters were recorded.

"One Sushma Gupta appeared under six EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Cards) numbers in Nalasopara. After media coverage on August 12, all six entries vanished by 6 pm the same day. Who deleted them? Who verified the identities? No officer has answered," Patil said.

Wadettiwar alleged that Devang Dave, associated with a political party, got the contract for voter addition and deletion. “In Rajura (Chandrapur), we submitted proof of BJP workers tampering with lists. Yet, not a single FIR was filed," he alleged.

Dave has dismissed the allegations as baseless.

"The EC in 2020 clarified my association with the poll body. Still, Wadettiwar came up with unfounded allegations. I am a loyal worker of the BJP for many years, and if we are allegedly doing 'Vote Chori', we could do it because of the abrogation of Article 370, construction of Ram Temple, implementation of GST 2.0, and schmes like Swach Bharat. People will continue to support us in the coming years as well", he told reporters.

The opposition leaders also alleged that the electoral database was being "operated by outside agencies", beyond the control of the State EC and the ECI.

The leaders said they would hold another round of meetings soon to decide further action if the SEC did not initiate a widespread rectification of the electoral database.

Fadnavis, meanwhile, termed the MVA as a “confused alliance”.

"These meetings are to create a narrative before the local body polls. Instead of accepting defeat and going among the people, the Opposition is attacking constitutional institutions.

The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena dismissed the opposition's claims on the "compromised" voters’ lists and accused the leaders of indulging in "opportunistic politics" that suits their agenda.

Kalyan MP Shrikant Shinde said the Maha Vikas Aghadi bloc raises only those issues that are politically convenient. PTI ND MR GK NP NSK