Two delegations of Opposition leaders in Maharashtra met senior election officials here on Tuesday ahead of the upcoming local body polls and raised concerns
MUMBAI — Two delegations of Opposition leaders in Maharashtra met senior election officials here on Tuesday ahead of the upcoming local body polls and raised concerns, ranging from questioning why no SIR exercise was carried out in the state, to using VVPAT for polls.
In a rare solidarity, MNS chief Raj Thackeray joined top Opposition leaders, including NCP (SP) head Sharad Pawar, and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, in visiting the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam and flagging alleged irregularities in the poll process, including the voters' rolls.
The Thackeray cousins arrived together, further bolstering the buzz around a prospective alliance for the upcoming elections to Mumbai and other civic bodies.
The Thackeray duo and Pawar met at the Sena (UBT) office, Shivalay, in the Nariman Point area, before proceeding to meet the CEO.
Raj Thackeray's active participation led to a fresh discussion on whether the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) will join the larger Opposition bloc amid anxieties in Congress.
This delegation of leaders from the Congress, Left parties, Peasants and Workers Party, and Samajwadi Party, met Chockalingam at the Mantralaya (secretariat) and 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).
"Will the Election Commission do an SIR-like exercise in Maharashtra like Bihar?" a memorandum submitted by the leaders stated.
The delegation claimed that migrants from outside Maharashtra who have settled in large numbers in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Dombivili, Nashik, and Pune have been registered as voters locally and in their home states.
The leaders sought the Election Commission's response on the steps to deal with the dual registrations.
The Opposition leaders also demanded that the VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) system be allowed in the local body polls, likely to be held in the next two months or early next year.
The memorandum demanded voting on ballot papers for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections if the SEC does not allow VVPATs.
Another delegation, comprising Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Ambadas Danve and (Lok Sabha member) Arvind Sawant, raised similar demands during their meeting with State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare.
The opposition memorandum stated that fresh voters were added to the rolls between October 2024 and July 2025.
The leaders questioned why the poll body has not made the voter list public and why the names of young electors who turned 18 after July 2025 have not been added.
"We met S Chokhalingam to show him the irregularities in the voters' list in different parts of the state. It is now evident that there are a lot of irregularities, and it can be seen in various constituencies," NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil told reporters.
If the voters' list remains frozen and the State Election Commission proceeds with the polls, the same "mess" will persist in the upcoming local body elections, he claimed.
"We have demanded that the SEC and the State CEO hold a joint meeting with us and listen to our concerns. They have assured us that both will come together to hear our grievances," he added.
Patil alleged that there are multiple instances of duplicate names in the voters' list.
"In one case, a single house has 170 registered voters," he said, and demanded that anomalies in the voters' list be rectified before conducting polls.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut stated that Opposition leaders were scheduled to hold a joint press conference following the meeting.
"However, the presser will take place after the discussions, which remain incomplete. Talks will resume on Wednesday as the Election Commission "needs some more time," he said.
The Rajya Sabha member added that the ruling BJP should also have participated in the meeting, stressing the importance of conducting elections in a free and fair manner.
"The BJP is making similar demands in West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Even the BJP should have been here," Raut said.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Sandeep Deshpande, who was part of the delegation, claimed a voters' list in the Jogeshwari assembly segment had voters' names in different languages.
"These anomalies have to be presented to the Election Commission. Who are these voters?" Deshpande said.
Taking a dig at the Opposition, Shiv Sena leader and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde termed Maha Vikas Aghadi as a "Maha Confused Aghadi".
In a jibe at rival Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Shinde said the one who frequently visited Mantralaya only "virtually" when he was the chief minister, went to the same building again not for work, but for ranting.
State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare, meanwhile, said that updating or removing names from the assembly constituency voter lists for local body elections does not fall under the State Election Commission's jurisdiction.