Thackerays, Congress, NCP-SP demand delayed local polls until voters’ lists are rectified

Leaders of all Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) opposition parties, including the Congress, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, besides the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) demanded on Wednesday that elections to the local civic and municipal bodies in Maharashtra be postponed until discrepancies in voters’ lists are resolved.

Addressing mediapersons at a press conference after all the opposition parties met the Maharashtra State Election Commissioner to discuss bogus names in voters’ lists, Uddhav Thackeray said, “All political parties have come together. We had also written to the BJP, but they did not come. Before the assembly elections, we had written a letter in November 2024, in which we had said that some BJP people were playing with voters’ lists and including voters as they liked. Are they election commissioners or are they puppets? I told election officials that if they want to hold elections, then make a selection without holding elections. But we will not tolerate dictatorship. Who is the father of the Central Election Commission and the Maharashtra State Election Commission? We would like to know”.

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At the press conference, Sharad Pawar-led NCP leader Jayant Patil, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, and Uddhav Thackeray raised questions about the discrepancies in voters’ lists and the role of the Election Commission, as well as demanded that local body elections be postponed until all discrepancies are resolved.

“Yesterday, we told Election Commission officials that elections should not be held until voters’ lists are rectified. The officials said that we will think positively about it. If there are voters aged 117 and 124 years, then India must be having the best climate on the planet, because, going by voters’ lists, there seem to be too many voters aged more than 100 years here. The Election Commission seems to believe in reincarnation. The only other possibility is that voters’ lists are being manipulated. Therefore, should a case of false voting be registered?” Uddhav Thackeray said.

“Elections to local civic bodies have not been held for five years. So what difference does it make if they are not held for another 6 months? Until the voter lists are rectified, do not hold elections,” MNS chief Raj Thackeray said.

“Yesterday, we met representatives of the Central Election Commission. Today, we met representatives of the Maharashtra State Election Commission and the Central Election Commission. The Election Commission only conducts elections, but political parties contest elections. If the Election Commission does not show voters’ lists to political parties, then there could be something fishy. We will see what decision election officials take tomorrow or the day after. After that, we will reveal our decision,” Raj Thackeray said.

“We met the Maharashtra State Election Commissioner yesterday and submitted a statement, showing the endless mistakes in voters’ lists. He assured us that corrections will be made by sending a letter to the Central Election Commission. We met again today, and we provided important evidence proving that voters’ addresses in the voters’ lists are wrong. We found that in reality, voters do not live at addresses mentioned in voters’ lists,” Sharad Pawar-led NCP leader Jayant Patil said, citing examples.

“In booth number 8 at Murbad, there is a house with 400 voters. Some voters have no house numbers. In many places, there are duplicate voters. The EPIC number is the same. In Nalasopara, the name of Sushma Gupta has been recorded 6 times. Our worker showed this in the afternoon on August 12. After that, at 6 pm, the woman’s name was removed. We showed examples where names were deleted from voters’ lists. We asked the Election Commission at whose instructions these names were removed and who filed complaints to delete these names. Someone else runs the Maharashtra Election Commission’s computer server. The system is not in the hands of the State Election Commission or the Centre. Somebody else is running it from outside,” Jayant Patil said.

“If local body polls are held using such lists, it will be very difficult. Remove bogus voters. Take note of the statement of an MP who openly stated that he won elections by bringing 20,000 voters from outside,” Jayant Patil said.

“We said that there was a flaw in the voters’ lists. The State Election Commission finalised the voters’ list on July 1, 2024, and no corrections were made in it. Voters came from outside and voted during the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections. The voters’ lists are full of flaws. We met the Maharashtra State Election Commission and the Central Election Commission. However, we are not satisfied with their answers to the questions we asked,” senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat told media persons at the press conference.