In an attempt to prevent dubious voting in the upcoming local bodies elections in Maharashtra, 'double star will be marked' next to names of the voters, whose names are found more than once in the voters list, the state election commissioner, Dinesh Waghmare said. This comes after the opposition raised questions over alleged fraud in the voters’ list, pointing out several examples.
Waghmare, however, said that there is no confirmation on total number of duplicate voters, the new step will help in bringing transperancy. "For voters whose name, address, gender etc are identical will be 'star marked' at the polling booth, the officers will confirm if the respective voter has casted vote in any other constituency. We have worked on a tool to mark voters which multiple registrations," he added.
Last week, a massive rally 'Satyacha Morcha' was held by Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) emphasised that unless the voters’ list is clean, there should not be any local body polls in the state. A letter was also written in this concern to election commission of India (ECI).
After announcing the schedule for municipal councils and Nagar Panchayat elections on Tuesday, Waghmare said that the SEC has adopted the voter list with cut-off date of July 31. "We haven't received any communication from ECI regarding voters list," Waghmare said.
On asked as why there was a rush to announce the poll dates despite allegations on dubious voters list, the SEC said that it has to meet the deadline set by Supreme Court to hold all local bodies elections in Maharashtra by January 31, 2026.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray in his recent speech, armed with boxes full of duplicate voters, spoke about dubious voters. He alleged that in the 2024 Maharashtra elections, nearly 4,500 people from Kalyan Rural, Dombivali, Bhiwandi, and Murbad voted in their constituencies as well as in Mumbai’s Malabar Hill.
Thackeray also alleged that in the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency, there are over 65,000 dubious voters and in Mumbai South, the number is over 55,000. He also claimed that in the Thane Lok Sabha, over two lakh dubious voters were registered.
Amid rising political tensions over alleged bogus voters and double voting last week, the SEC has issued detailed instructions to its officials for verifying and handling duplicate and triplicate names in the voters’ lists.
The SEC also directed officials to obtain a written declaration from voters whose names appear more than once in the electoral roll, affirming that they will cast their vote only at the polling station assigned to them.
