Son older than father? Errors in Maharashtra voters’ list ignored, says Oppn

Ahead of a joint meeting with Maharashtra’s top election officials, Opposition leaders from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and other parties renewed allegations of massive irregularities in the state’s electoral rolls — a key issue that has gained momentum under the Opposition’s ongoing ‘Vote Chori’ (vote theft) campaign over the 2024 Lok Sabha election, based on evaluation of voter rolls and voting patterns.

The campaign, spearheaded by the Congress and supported by allies, alleges deep-rooted flaws in the voter registration system and systematic manipulation of rolls to benefit the ruling BJP.

Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat on 15 October, Wednesday, reiterated those concerns, claiming that the state’s voters’ list contains “hundreds and thousands of errors” that have not been properly corrected despite repeated appeals.

“We had requested the election officials to correct it, but it was never done properly. It appears the BJP and those in power do not want a fair and error-free voters list before the local body elections,” he said, accusing the Election Commission of India and the central government of collusion in this “deliberate negligence” of maintaining voter accuracy.

Joining him, MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar said Tuesday’s discussions with electoral authorities were “unsatisfactory,” adding that the opposition bloc had demanded a second consecutive meeting to push for action. The delegation is meeting state election commissioner Dinesh Waghmare and chief electoral officer S. Chockalingam to demand “immediate rectification” of the anomalies and transparent publication of deletions and additions to the electoral rolls.

Leaders from the Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), Shiv Sena (UBT), MNS, and various Left and regional parties — including Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, Thorat and Varsha Gaikwad — are expected to attend the discussions.

Their memorandum alleges widespread errors such as duplicate entries, missing names, and fictitious voters — with examples including cases where “a son has been listed older than his father” and entire families missing from the rolls.

The leaders also questioned why Maharashtra did not undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, which the Election Commission has carried out in Bihar just before its upcoming elections. The Opposition’s memorandum asks bluntly: “Will the Election Commission do an SIR-like exercise in Maharashtra, like Bihar?” At the same time, it raises concerns over dual voter registration of migrant workers registered both in their home states and Maharashtra’s urban hubs such as Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik and Kalyan–Dombivli.

Another major demand was for the transparent use of VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) systems in the local body polls, or alternatively, manual ballot paper voting for key civic elections such as those in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). “We want a transparent electoral process where votes cannot be manipulated electronically,” a senior leader from the delegation said.

These demands follow months of allegations of vote theft from Opposition leaders over the 2024 Lok Sabha polls — a campaign that accuses the BJP of exploiting technical loopholes, voter roll manipulation and irregularities in postal ballots to tilt results in its favour.

The Opposition maintains that the same methods could be used in upcoming municipal and zilla parishad elections if electoral data is not verified independently.

Investigations by independent watchdogs such as the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) have also exposed irregularities in Maharashtra’s rolls. In one case, a single voter’s name appeared six times in the Nalasopara constituency, each with a different EPIC (voter ID) number — a serious breach of election norms that allows potential double voting.

Despite the mounting pressure, the state Election Commission has clarified that while it oversees the conduct of local polls, “adding, deleting, or altering names” in the electoral roll falls under the Election Commission of India’s jurisdiction.

The Opposition, for its part, insists that transparency in the process — through immediate audits and accessible voter data — is essential to prevent what they call a ‘Vote Chori 2.0’ ahead of local elections that will set the tone for Maharashtra’s 2029 assembly polls.