Kalyan: The incident came to light within the first hour of polling on Thursday morning in Ward No. 3-D (General – Male category) of the KDMC elections. As voting began around 7.30 am several voters and polling agents noticed that the official name of the NCP–SP candidate Adv. Shekhar Apparao Wakode was incorrectly displayed on the EVMs.
Instead of his registered and approved name — Adv. Shekhar Apparao Wakode — the machines showed the truncated and misleading name Adv. Sheikh Apparao Wakode.
What has caused greater alarm is that the same error was found uniformly across all 63 polling booths in the ward, leaving little scope for it to be dismissed as an isolated technical mistake.The discrepancy led to confusion among voters, many of whom were seen questioning polling officials about whether the name referred to the same candidate. Several voters reportedly hesitated or delayed casting their vote, fearing that they might be voting for a different person.
Adv. Wakode immediately raised the issue with the Returning Officer polling supervisors and election officials demanding urgent rectification. However, despite repeated complaints from morning till afternoon no correction was made while polling was underway, he alleged.
This is not a minor clerical error. When a candidate’s name itself is altered across all polling booths, it strikes at the heart of free and fair elections, Wakode told the media.
Allegation Of A Deliberate Plot
Terming the incident “deeply suspicious”, Adv. Wakode alleged that the change in his name was intentional and politically motivated.
I am a winning candidate in this ward. Seeing the public support, my opponents have resorted to underhand tactics to confuse voters by altering my identity on the EVM he said.He maintained that the change from ‘Shekhar’ to ‘Sheikh’ was not a spelling mistake but a distortion of identity, capable of misleading voters and impacting the final outcome.
Legal Action Planned
Adv. Wakode announced that he would be approaching the court over the issue, calling it a violation of his constitutional right to contest on equal and fair terms.
A petition is expected to be filed seeking:
A probe into how the error occurred
Accountability of election officials
Directions on the validity of votes cast under the flawed EVM display.
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Election Commission Under Fire
The controversy has once again highlighted what opposition leaders are calling “double standards” in election administration.
While candidates face rejection of nominations for even minor spelling errors or document mismatches, the election machinery has allowed a major, ward-wide error on EVMs to continue unchecked during live polling, critics argue. Political observers say that such lapses seriously damage the credibility of the electoral process, especially when the mistake directly alters a candidate’s name and identity before voters.As polling continues in Ward 3-D all eyes are now on the KDMC election authorities and their response to what is being described as one of the most serious EVM-related controversies in the ongoing civic polls.
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