BMC Denies Aaditya Thackeray’s ‘Anti-National’ Allegations Over Delay In Draft Voters List Upload

Mumbai: A day after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray highlighted that the draft voters list for the BMC elections bears the publishing date of November 14, and made allegations like ‘anti-national’ activities, questioning why the list was held back for a week, the BMC administration refuted all allegations clarifying that the draft voters list was officially uploaded on November 20 following instructions from the state election commission (SEC).

Thackeray, the MLA from Worli had alleged that it is not a mistake, but a crime. “Were they waiting for any orders from any political bosses? Did they wait till the list they had to induce their malpractice into was ready? Who all had access to this list for a week before it was uploaded on the 20th?” he asked.

The administration, in its statement said, “The list has a publishing date of November 14 as per the SEC’s earlier schedule. Following the revised schedule of the SEC, the draft voters’ list was published on November 20. However, in those days, no one had access to the list and it was officially uploaded only on November 20.”

Meanwhile, the opposition is up in arms against the revelation that the draft voters’ list for the BMC elections has more than 11 lakh duplicate voters. The GPlus had reported in the November 23 edition that out of the total 1.03 crore voters in Mumbai, 11 lakh 1 thousand voters have multiple registrations, which are ‘star-marked’ by the SEC.

Congress MLA from Dharavi, Jyoti Gaikwad said, “We will fight against this. The SEC should answer how 11 lakh duplicate voters are registered in Mumbai? In civic body elections, the win and loss have a thin margin, and 11 lakh makes a major difference.”

Out of the total duplicate entries, maximum of 4.98 lakh are in the western suburbs, 3.29 lakh in the eastern suburbs and 2.73 lakh in the island city. Out of total 1.03 crore voters, 55 lakh are male and 48 lakh are female.

While addressing the Konkan Mohatsav on Monday, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said, “The upcoming BMC elections will be the last for the Marathi manoos if you don’t remain vigilant. And the consequences would be uncontrollable. Do not let your guard down; otherwise, the loss is imminent.” The MNS chief was among the first who raised the discrepancies in the voters’ list and joined a united march taken out by the opposition last month.

However, the BJP leaders said that they welcome the transparency in the voters’ list. Mumbai BJP chief Ameet Satam said, “We are in favour of deleting dubious names from the voters list. The SEC has done the right thing to mark multiple entries. We welcome this scrutiny in the draft voters list.” While another senior BJP leader said, “This is the first step. After the general elections for local bodies in Maharashtra are concluded, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will be carried by the Election Commission and all fake voters will be deleted.

Citizens can submit their suggestions/objections on the draft voters’ list via the BMC or SEC website until November 27.

The SEC had clarified earlier that to prevent dubious voting, the voter who has ‘star-marked’ against his/her name, the polling booth officer will ensure the respective voter has not cast a vote in any other booth.

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