MUMBAI: Opposition parties in the state called on Maharashtra’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Chockalingam, demanding action on the alleged anomalies in the voters list and more transparency in the election process. The meeting, however, remained inconclusive, as the MVA leaders were firm that the local body elections should be conducted only after a correction of the voters list. Finally it was decided that a joint meeting would be held on Wednesday with the State Election Commission (SEC), which conducts local body polls.
The leaders in the delegation were the NCP (SP)’s Sharad Pawar and Jayant Patil, the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, the Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat and Varsha Gaikwad, Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh, PWP leader Jayant Patil and CPI leader Prakash Reddy. The grouping was politically significant since the Thackeray cousins came together with Pawar; this was also the first time that Raj was seen along with other opposition parties, especially the Congress.
MVA leaders gave Chockalingam examples of the irregularities in the voters list and demanded the deletion of duplicate names, verification of voters with addresses such as House No Zero, and those without an Election Photo Identity Card number and said that they should not be allowed to vote. To this, Chockalingam responded that only the SEC could take a decision on this.
Raj pointed out that the Supreme Court had asked the EC whether it was prepared to conduct the local body elections, and underlined that correction in the voters list was part of that preparation. The MNS chief also questioned why the addition of names was stopped in July 2025 and said that it should be continued till the elections were announced. During the discussions, when Chockalingam said a few times that the point raised was not under the jurisdiction of his office but that of either the ECI or SEC, Raj asked him: “Then what exactly is your responsibility?”
Uddhav Thackeray strongly objected to the decision of the EC to not use VVPAT slips in the local body elections, saying they were absolutely necessary. “Otherwise, conduct the BMC elections with ballot papers,” he said.
NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil alleged that hundreds of thousands of voters were bogus and their names needed to be removed. He gave an example from Sangli, where many voters have registered without ‘zero address’ (no formal address) in areas where there are no slum or illegal structures on the roadside. He also pointed out that software could be used to find duplicate names in the list. MLA Jitendra Awhad cited an earlier statement of Shiv Sena MP Sandipan Bhumre that he had arranged over 20,000 voters from outside the constituency.
Chockalingam assured the leaders that he would write to the Election Commission of India (ECI) with a copy to the SEC regarding their objections.
Shinde responded to the MVA leaders’ meeting with a taunt. “MVA leaders have realised that they will lose the local body elections to the Mahayuti,” he said. “So, to prepare the ground for that defeat, they are objecting to the voters list.”