Maharashtra Polls in Peril: Opposition Demands Voter List Fix Amid Errors

The opposition leaders, including former Chief Minister and Shiv Sena(UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray, veteran NCP(SP) leader Jayant Patil, senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena founder Raj Thackeray, Samajwadi Party legislator Rais Shaikh among others on Wednesday jointly met the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Chickalingam and State Election Commissioner (SEC) Dinesh Waghmare and insisted that the ensuing local and civic body elections should be held in free, fair and transparent manner.

This is the second meeting the opposition leaders had after they met the duo separately on Tuesday.

At the press conference, Uddhav Thackeray said that the elections should be fair and that they should not be "selected".

“The poll body should accept the truth that there are errors in the voters' list and cancel the elections until those errors are rectified. If you don't use VVPAT, it means you will destroy all the evidence,” he alleged.

He further stated, “Maha Vikas Aghadi had given a letter to ECI on October 19 last year, before the state Assembly elections, pointing out that certain BJP workers were playing with the voters' list. But nothing was done. Now, July 1 is the cutoff date announced for the voter registration for local and civic body polls. Why can't those who completed 18 years after July 1 get the right to vote?” he asked.

NCP(SP) legislator Jayant Patil said if the voters' list of state Assembly elections is going to be used for local and civic body polls, then the scam will continue. “We demanded that a thorough search should be undertaken to remove bogus voters,” he said.

Former Minister Balasaheb Thorat claimed that the voters’ list used during the Assembly elections has several problems, and no review has been done of it. “The ECI should have rectified the list. If the same list with existing problems is to be used, then how can there be fair elections?” he asked.

MNS chief Raj Thackeray said the ECI conducts the elections, but the political parties fight them. “If political parties are not going to get voters' lists, then this is a scam. Show two lists for Mumbai before 2024 and after the Assembly elections, where some people are shown aged 117 and 124. We told the CEO and SEC that the elections should not be held before rectifying the mistakes in the voters' list. We have also asked them to cancel the notification issued yesterday regarding the verification of the voters' list,” he added.

NCP(SP) legislator Jayant Patil said, "Why is the ECI not giving a digital voters' list? All the problems could have been solved easily. We worked manually for the last two to three months and found out these errors. There are many more problems, and we are waiting for the reply from the SEC. Once we get it, we will give further details,” he added.

Uddhav Thackeray asked, “Who exactly is responsible for the voter list, the state or the Central Election Commission? Tell me who I should talk to first. Who exactly is responsible between the two? How are voters registered twice and thrice?"

“State CEO S. Chokalingam says we have no responsibility, the State Election Commission says we have no responsibility. If you want to hold elections with errors, then why hold elections? Make direct elections for selection,” he remarked

Earlier, SEC Dinesh Waghmare, while responding to the questions raised by opposition leaders, replied, "We are using the previous voters' list. The date was fixed as July 1. Since we are using the same list, it is not within our power to delete or change names."

- IANS