Maharashtra Oppn leaders claim voters' list 'faulty', shouldn't be used in local body polls

Mumbai: NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil and Congress's Balasaheb Thorat on Wednesday claimed the voters' lists in Maharashtra were "highly compromised and faulty" and should not be used in the upcoming local body polls in the state.

They were speaking to reporters after a delegation of Opposition leaders met State Election Commissioner (SEC) Dinesh Waghmare and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Chockalingam for the second consecutive day on Wednesday to raise concerns over alleged irregularities in the voters' list.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) head Raj Thackeray were also present at the press meet.

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

Patil said "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.

"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 said.

Citing instances, he said at 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, Patil claimed.

He alleged that multiple entries of the same individual were found in several electoral rolls despite the belief that EPIC numbers were meant to be unique.

"There is one Sushama Gupta whose name appeared in Nallasopara 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? The administration has provided no answers," he said.

The NCP (SP) leader claimed that an external agency was operating the electoral database.

"Someone else is inserting names in the electoral system, and when exposed, those names are quietly removed. It appears that neither the State Election Commission nor the Election Commission of India has control over the database. Outsiders are operating the system," he claimed.

Highlighting more discrepancies, Patil said that in Nashik Central assembly constituency, 813 voters were shown registered at a single house number - 3829, while in Pune Cantonment booth 30, house number 226 had 869 names attached to one address.

"This cannot be dismissed as clerical oversight anymore," he said.

He also questioned the withholding of voter turnout data during the Maharashtra assembly polls last year.

"Normally, every hour, data on how many male and female voters cast their votes is published. But during the assembly elections, this system was ignored. After 5 pm, no exact turnout figures were released. The final tally was made public only two days later. This goes against the principles of transparency," Patil said.

Warning that the same "mess" may now be extended to the civic elections, he said if the "faulty rolls" used in the assembly polls are reused, the irregularities will continue unchecked.

"We demanded that bogus names be removed and the list be rectified instead of just extending the objection window by three or four days," Patil added.

Congress leader Thorat also said the opposition had flagged irregularities before the assembly elections, but no corrective action was taken.

"Even college hostels were accepted as residential addresses and EPIC cards were issued to students. A complaint was filed, but it was never acted upon," he said.

Thorat claimed that no comprehensive correction of the voters' list had been undertaken by electoral officers in Maharashtra since then.

"Despite repeated objections, such a faulty list is being pushed again. The SEC told us that removing objectionable names is not the commission's responsibility. If that is the stance, then how can the upcoming local body polls be expected to be transparent and honest?" he asked.

During the meetings on Tuesday, the Opposition leaders also demanded rectification of anomalies in the voters' list before the local body polls.

The leaders also sought to know why the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) (of voters' rolls) is not being carried out in Maharashtra like Bihar (where it was conducted before the assembly elections, scheduled next month).

The Opposition leaders demanded that the VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) system be allowed in the local body polls.

They also demanded voting on ballot papers for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections if the SEC does not allow VVPATs.