Shiv Sena minister, MLA join Opposition chorus in demanding voter list rectification

Buldhana (Maharashtra), Oct 16 (PTI) Echoing the Opposition's allegations of anomalies in electoral rolls, ruling Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad on Thursday demanded that the Election Commission remove `dual' voters as well as the dead ones from the lists.

Talking to reporters, he said every voter should be linked to the Aadhaar card and death certificate, so that the name of a deceased person can be removed from the lists immediately after the death.

"Why is the Election Commission not deleting dual voters (voters whose names figure in two or more lists) and those who figure in the list despite being deceased," Gaikwad asked, adding that some voters in his district had died 30 years ago and yet their names were in current lists.

He pegged the number of such voters at about one lakh.

The Election Commission stopped the updating of voter lists on July 25 but what about those who became eligible to vote after the cut-off date, the MLA asked.

Asked for a comment, Shiv Sena leader and Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam told reporters in Ratnagiri that there was nothing wrong in seeking rectification if there were anomalies.

"There is nothing wrong with it. The EC should make a rectification if there are dual voters. It (the demand) will also have our support," he said.

In Mumbai, NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar alleged that malpractices such as registration of bogus voters, bulk deletion of genuine voters and double registration of voters took place on a large scale after the unfavourable results for the BJP-led Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha elections.

"Unfavourable" voters were shown as dead, and bogus voting took place in the name of dead persons, Pawar claimed.

Between 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 32 lakh voters were added, which amounted to addition of 6.5 lakh voters per year or 54,000 per month. But between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra assembly polls, 48 lakh voters were added in just six months, the NCP (SP) leader pointed out.

In his Karjat Jamkhed assembly constituency, 14,292 voters were added, 5,360 names were deleted and 14,162 duplicate names were inserted in voter rolls after the Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.

There were instances where the Aadhaar card of a voter in one constituency was used for the registration of another voter in a different constituency with the photo and name changed, the NCP (SP) MLA said.

On Wednesday, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray and leaders of the opposition parties held a press conference citing grave irregularities in voters' lists. They also demanded that local body elections should not take place unless the anomalies are rectified.

Addressing a news conference in Mumbai on Thursday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam also admitted that there were errors in the lists, but said the Opposition's demand to not hold the polls was extreme, as local body elections have been pending for the last five to seven years.

"There are more than 9.5 crore voters in the state, and over one lakh voters' lists. Claiming that there is a problem in everything is a bit far-fetched," Nirupam added. PTI PR MR KRK