Aaditya Thackeray flags major voter list irregularities ahead of BMC civic polls

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Monday alleged widespread discrepancies in Mumbai’s voter lists, claiming that thousands of fake and duplicate entries could compromise the integrity of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.

Speaking at the party’s Nirdhar Melava event at the Worli Dome, Thackeray presented what he described as “evidence of a major scam” in the electoral rolls.

Using a detailed presentation reminiscent of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s voter list exposés in Delhi, he outlined instances of alleged manipulation and negligence by authorities. Party chief Uddhav Thackeray was also present and addressed party workers on the party’s civic poll strategy.

According to an India Today report Aaditya Thackeray, undertook a detailed review of the voter lists in his Worli constituency and uncovered around 22,000 irregularities. Calling the findings “deeply concerning”, he urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct a thorough investigation and rectify the errors.

He further instructed Shiv Sena (UBT) office-bearers across Mumbai to carry out similar audits in their respective wards to prevent “bogus voting”.

Irregularities Cited by Thackeray

Thackeray outlined several types of anomalies found in the voter lists:

Voters ‘reborn’: The name of a deceased voter, Narhari Kulkarni, had been deleted from the Lok Sabha list but inexplicably reappeared in the Vidhan Sabha rolls.

Duplicate and missing EPICs: The review found 28 voters without Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers, 133 voters with identical EPICs under different names, and 3,856 individuals issued two EPIC numbers each, totalling 7,810 cards.

Data discrepancies: The team found 502 voters sharing identical names with their relatives, 720 cases where fathers and sons had mismatched surnames, and 643 instances of gender mismatches in records.

Age and photo errors: The rolls included 113 voters aged above 100 years, along with several cases of missing or distorted photographs.

Fictitious addresses: Verification revealed 38 voters registered at a small room fit for only five people and 46 voters listed at the site of a demolished sweet shop where no residents exist.

Thackeray said such findings raise serious doubts about the accuracy of Mumbai’s voter database and demanded that the ECI ensure a transparent clean-up before the civic polls.

He concluded that fair elections depend on credible voter lists and accused authorities of failing in their responsibility to maintain them, warning that “democracy cannot survive on fraudulent votes.”

With Agency Inputs