Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer writes to ECI on Oppn's demand for SSR of voters list

Mumbai, Oct 16 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam has written to the Election Commission of India seeking "necessary appropriate directions" after a delegation of opposition parties submitted a joint representation on October 14 demanding a short Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls before the upcoming local body elections.

In a letter addressed to Deputy Election Commissioner Sanjay Kumar dated October 14, Chockalingam said the concerns raised by the opposition regarding rectification and de-duplication of the electoral rolls had been formally placed before the poll panel.

"Necessary appropriate direction may kindly be issued," he wrote.

The letter stated that elections are due for 29 municipal corporations, 247 municipal councils, 42 out of 147 nagar panchayats, 32 out of 34 zilla parishads as well as 336 out of 351 panchayat samitis in Maharashtra.

It said the State Election Commission has already begun procedural preparations.

Electoral rolls of Assembly constituencies, updated as of July 1, 2025, have been provided by the Election Commission for the purpose of bifurcation ward-wise to conduct these local body polls.

Chockalingam informed the Commission that a delegation comprising Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT), Raj Thackeray (MNS), Balasaheb Thorat (Congress), Jayant Patil (Peasants and Workers Party), Subhash Lande (Communist Party of India), Ajit Nawale (CPI-M) and Rais Shaikh (Samajwadi Party) visited his office on October 14 and submitted a written representation.

The opposition leaders alleged large-scale errors in the existing rolls, including duplicate voter entries, incorrect addresses and discrepancies in age details.

The delegation also argued that the electoral rolls had not been republished following the October 2024 Assembly elections, depriving political parties and citizens of the opportunity to file objections or seek corrections.

They pointed out that individuals who turned 18 by January 1, July 1 and October 1, 2025, have not been added to the rolls since no SSR was conducted for these qualifying dates.

Seeking corrective steps, the delegation requested that a short SSR be conducted with October 1, 2025, as the qualifying date before the announcement of the local poll schedule.

While seeking a comprehensive de-duplication exercise, the opposition parties also attached sample cases to illustrate errors in the rolls currently in use.

Chockalingam noted that the Supreme Court has directed the State Election Commission to complete the local body election process by January 31, 2026, and, therefore, sought instructions from the Election Commission of India in light of the opposition's demands.

Alleging that existing lists were "highly compromised and manipulated", opposition leaders demanded that civic or local body elections should not be held until the electoral rolls were "fully rectified".

Addressing a joint press conference on Wednesday, the opposition leaders accused the ruling parties of attempting to normalise irregularities in the voter rolls.

Uddhav Thackeray said the poll body must either ensure a fair electoral process or simply "select a few candidates and finish the procedure". He added that polls held based on faulty rolls would undermine democratic integrity.

Thackeray said the Maha Vikas Aghadi had written to the EC on October 19 last year, ahead of the Assembly elections, pointing to alleged interference by BJP workers in electoral data management.

"Except the BJP, all major parties have raised concerns. We submitted the same proofs again," Thackeray said while questioning the refusal to use VVPATs in the Mumbai civic elections and the secrecy around CCTV footage monitoring the polling process.

Raj Thackeray remarked that waiting a few more months to clean up the electoral database would not destabilise democracy. Civic polls in the state have been due since early 2022.

"We are not seeking the cancellation of elections, but the correction of voter lists. Democracy cannot run on manipulated rolls," the MNS chief said.

Jayant Patil claimed the irregularities were systemic and not clerical errors. He cited specific figures to allege that hundreds of voters in different regions had either incomplete addresses or no address at all on their EPIC records.

According to him, 400 voters in Murbad had only a dash in place of residential address, while 450 voters in Badnera had a zero before their address and 867 names in Kamptee were listed without any address.

He also referred to the case of a voter named Sushma Gupta, whose name allegedly appeared under six EPIC numbers in Nalasopara before all entries were removed following media attention.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday criticised the opposition's move, calling the MVA a confused alliance.

He described the meetings with poll officials as an attempt to build a narrative before elections and accused the alliance of attacking constitutional institutions instead of preparing to face the electorate.

Shiv Sena leaders from the ruling camp also dismissed the opposition's allegations as politically motivated.

Local body elections in Maharashtra are expected within the next two months or early next year, though no final schedule has been announced. PTI ND BNM